Most of our visitors to the Pays Basque come to see the spectacular coastline.  They spend time in our little village of Guethary, explore San Jean de Luz, Biarritz, and Bayonne, and do some hiking in the Pyrenees.  Before they leave, we always recommend that they take a drive along the  beautiful Nive River through the foothills of the Pyrenees to Saint Jean Pied de Port, about an hour away.  

This drive epitomizes the old saying that "It's not about the destination; it's about the journey." 

Taking D932 and D918, you'll pass through numerous Basque villages worth visiting.  The most well-known are probably  Espelette, Cambo Les Bains, Itxassou, Louhossoa, and Bidarray, but there are many others where you can spend an hour or two visiting the local churches,  tasting the local  cheeses, honey, sausages, and other artisanal products.

Since it had been a few years since we'd done the drive ourselves, Karen and I decided to revisit the area.  Our first stop was Espelette.

The village of Espelette is world renown for its peppers.  In our part of the Basque region, you find Espelette peppers in most dishes.  The peppers are dried and ground and have a rich flavor that complements most seafood, vegetables and meats.  The spice is not terribly hot until you heat it or add garlic, which we often do.  While the French tend to avoid spicy (hot) foods, in small quantities, Espelette pepper seems to be acceptable to their palettes.  

The village of Espelette sits atop a hill with views of the Pyrenees.  In the fall, most of the buildings in the village itself and all of the nearby farmhouses are covered with Espelette peppers, hung to dry.  You can buy the ground pepper itself, or sample countless products ranging from spiced wines to spiced ice cream.  In late October, thousands of people from all over the world descend on Espelette for the Fete du Piment d'Espelette - Espelette Pepper festival.   With limited access and parking, we tend to avoid the Fete, but Espelette is a great place to visit the rest of the year.

Cambo les Bains is world-famous for its thermal baths and therapies for a variety of muscular skeletal and respiratory ailments.  It's the largest village along our route and aside from the baths is known as the home of Edmond Rostand, the author of Cyrano de Bergerac.  His home, the Villa Amaga, is a national heritage site with museum and spectacular gardens.   There are excellent cafes and restaurants in the main part of the village.  

Roland was Charlamagne's nephew and comanded a force charged with protecting the Franks from the Bretons.  Later in his career, in 778 AD, he led an army into Spain conquering countless villages.  However, he met his death at the Pas de Roland where Basques ambushed the Franks in this narrow gorge carved by the Nive River.  Several legends try to explain the creation of the arch.  Most claim that Roland himself carved it with his sword to escape the Basque attacks.  But the Pas de Roland is recognized by the Basques as proof of their resilience against invading armies.

In my previous post Ainhoa et La Chapelle d’Aubépine – a spectacular hike in the Pyrenees,
I mentioned the GR10, the 538-mile trail from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.  If you continued on the trail from La Chapelle d'Aubepine, you'd reach Itxassou, one of many stops along the GR10.      

Leaving Itxassou and continuing on the D918, you'll pass Bidarray, which is known for its white water rafting on the Nive River, and Louhosoa, a cute village with countless places to try local cheeses, the Biscuiterie Basque, where you can sample Basque baked goods, and the church with its amazing acoustics - perfect to hear Basque songs during a Mass.

From here, the D918 runs very close to the river.  You can stop and picnic at several spots.  Ultimately, you'll come to Saint Jean Pied de Port.  Arriving, it doesn't look like much.  You should park and make your way into the walled city.  ​​
        

Saint Jean Pied de Port is best known as one of the main stops on the Camino de Santiago de Campostela - the Way of Saint James.  Most of the French routes for this pilgrimage pass through Saint Jean Pied de Port and as you walk through the cobblestone streets, you'll see numerous hostels where pilgrims can spend the night at no charge if they have a credencial - a pilgrim's passport.  Saint Jean Pied de Port is also the most popular starting point for the pilgrimage.  It's a bit over 500 miles to Santiago de Campostela in Galicia, Spain.  People have been doing this pilgrimage since the 8th century and now, thousands of pilgrims and non-pilgrims hike the trail as a physical, mental and spiritual challenge.  

The medieval city of Saint Jean Pied de Port is dominated by the Citadel.  Once a fortress designed to spot invading Spanish armies, it's now a school.

In the past, Karen and I have climbed up the hill to the Citadel and then returned via a narrow path with very steep steps on the south side of the Citadel.  

Since we'd been to the Citadel several times before, we decided to walk around the back of the edifice before descending back to the city.
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As we were about to take the rugged steps down on the south side, we spotted a single-track trail on the left that seemed to head east above the river.  We followed the trail and were pleased to find that it ultimately came down to the river a mile or so above the main part of Saint Jean Pied de Port.  We followed the river back, stopping regularly to admire the views, look for trout in the river, and marvel at the hatch of thousands of water spiders.  

Back in the village, we found a small creperie and took a table overlooking the Nive.  After a leisurely late lunch, where we reflected on our enjoyable hike and reviewed our photos, we made our way back to Guethary just as the rain began.  

If you're in the Basque region, take a day and explore these inland villages.  You won't be disappointed.

After a week of spectacular fall weather with temperatures in the mid to upper 70s, the beginning of November began with a rainy forecast - for at least a week.  Seeing a brief break before heavy precipitation began, Karen and I decided to see if we could sneak in a hike before returning to shelter from the incoming storm at our place in Guethary.

Our friend Dominique Pasquier Biansan had recently posted Sebastien Carnet's spectacular sunset picture above, taken from La Chapelle d’Aubépine near the small Basque village of Ainhoa about 35 minutes from here.   In spite of all the hiking we've done in the Pyrenees, and although we've come across prehistoric cromlechs, dolmen, and megaliths out in the middle of nowhere (see my post Pays Basque: Sare, Zugarramurdi,  (witches!) and a Hike into Prehistory), we had yet to come across Basque steles - ancient burial markers found along trails in the mountains.  We decided to brave a few residual showers and make our way to the chapel.

We parked in Ainhoa, which sits right on the Spanish border.  The village is well known as a stop for pilgrims on on the Santiago de Campostella or the Way of Saint James.  It's also a stop for those hiking the GR-10 - the 538-mile trail that runs from Hendaye on the Atlantic, through the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean:  157,000 vertical feet of climb in what, for most, is a two-month hike.   

Heading out of the village, we started up a paved road which soon turned to dirt - no motor vehicles allowed.  After the first turn, we read the warning sign about Betizu - wild cattle that roam this section of the Pyrenees - in a nutshell, avoid them if at all possible.  Fortunately, we didn't see any on this hike (we'd seen them on others and they were pretty aggressive), but we did pass a few groups of Pottuk - small semi-wild horses also native to the Pyrennes.  

We continued up the steep road/trail and were stunned by the beauty in spite of the numerous showers limiting our views. 
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And, over the course of our 50-minute hike to the chapel, each turn revealed even more amazing vistas. 

​After climbing about 1000 vertical feet, we were a bit disappointed by the chapel itself.  It was built on a site where a shepherd saw the Virgin Mary who appeared above a hawthorn bush (aubépine in French).  It was closed today.  Perhaps the inside is impressive, but my photos of the exterior weren't worth posting.   Then again, it wasn't the chapel we'd come to see.  It was the steles and the views from the top.  
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While many of the steles are reproductions, several are originals, dating from the early 1600s.  They are intricately carved on both sides unlike headstones we see in the States.  On the originals, most of the designs remain, but nearly 400 years of exposure to the elements has made the text illegible. 
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The showers stopped, and our photos improved.  We considered continuing on the GR10 a bit further.  Past the chapel, it turns into a single track trail and there's a loop back to Ainhoa, which would make a nice 6-mile hike.  However, given the incoming weather and our limited experience with the area, we decided to be conservative and head back down the way we came.  

This, like most parts of the GR-10 is well worth the hike.  We're looking forward to longer forays into this area once the weather improves.