Visiting Bayonne: Touring the Capital of France’s Basque
Country with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
The
capital of the French Basque Country is Bayonne, which is located on the
Atlantic Ocean. I called Bayonne the “City
of Persian Shutters.” All the row houses
seem to have slatted shutters that you can see out of a house, but not into it.
Bayonne’s
streets are narrow and finding a parking spot in the summer is impossible. The many food and wine shops there made me
think that people ate well in Bayonne.
I
discovered that Bayonne was easy to navigate once you oriented yourself in
relation to the cathedral. The cathedral
is beautiful from a distance, but I wanted to go shopping and not visit a
church for once.
I
was on the hunt for bookstores as I pushed Florence around town. The first bookstore I found was all
historical books, but I wanted cookbooks and art books, which were in short
supply.
That
night I ate Poulet Basquaise (Basque Chicken) for dinner. Poulet Basquaise is a stovetop preparation of
braised chicken with red bell peppers, green bell peppers, onions, tomatoes,
and white wine.
It
is easy to prepare, and peppers are full of Vitamin C, which is supposed to be
an antioxidant. (Source: Anthony
Bourdain’s recipe in Food and Wine magazine online.)
I
drank a white wine with my dish called Irouléguy from the French Basque
Country. For dessert, I ate a Basque
Cake with vanilla pastry cream in it.
Basque cake is sinfully good. I
reserved indulging in it for vacations.
I
ate omelets, potatoes, salad with blue cheese dressing, and fruit salad at home,
so I liked indulging in Basque cake on vacation.
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
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