August 15 – St. Jean de Luz, France / San Sebastian, Spain

32 degrees in St. Jean de Luz, cooler in San Sebastian rain for a bit

Today we are in the Pyrénées mountains, and are a bit in France and a bit in northern Spain. We tendered into this small port of St. Jean de Luz. We port into France, yet our excursion is into Spain.

above San Sebastian Bay

down at San Sebastian Bay

from the boat to St. Jean de Luz

San Sebastian is about a 30 min drive along the coast. In fact, it only take us about 10 minutes along the highway to get into Spain.

San Sebastian is a town of about 180 000 people and being a bit higher into the mountains it is cooler than when we are in St. Jean de Luz. When we arrive it is a bit cloudy and eventually rains a bit…not too much, but some so that we have to seek shelter.

We see the town from high above when we stop at Monte Iqueldofor a look down on San Sebastian Bay and then spend the rest of our time in the old, historic part of town walking with a guide through pedestrian streets and then a bit on our own. Unfortunately the time on own wasn’t long enough to get a glass of wine or try their pintxo - the Basques version of tapas, so we wandered a bit and were soon back in France and St. Jean de Luz.

taloa - tasty

St. Jean de Luz behind us (our tender in the shot too)

Once we are back in St. Jean de Luz (and the heat), we have a glass wine and a snack of a Taloa – basically a regional dish in the Basques area. It is a street food with fillings inside a corn tortilla – we had chicken, onion and cheese…quite good.