Touring Pamplona and
Bayonne, Spanish and French Basque Region Tourist Towns with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
My
husband Laurent and I continued driving through the Pyrénées Mountains to the
City of Pamplona in Spain made famous by Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also
Rises.
Pamplona
is the seat of the Navarra Government and has many government buildings as
well. We had trouble finding a place to
park.
Once
we found a parking spot, the siesta was well underway. Everything was closed except for the
bar-restaurants in town.
We
found one with air-conditioning and ate there.
I ordered in the Spanish I had learned all by myself using books, reading
a bilingual French-Spanish newspaper, and watching the European news and
feature television program called Continentales on television.
I
ordered beer for us along with ham and cheese sandwiches. The bar was air-conditioned. I really did not want to go out and do any
touring, but Laurent finally insisted we get moving.
The
streets in Pamplona have collapsible metal barriers built into them that were
beneath the pavement. When the Running
of the Bulls happens during the Feast of Saint Fermin in July, these metal
barriers are hauled up to protect the spectators.
I
pretended to be a bull and chased Laurent through the streets. I hope we did not wake anyone up from their
siesta from laughing.
We
stayed in Bayonne the next day, because it was raining. We covered Florence up and walked to a Basque
bookstore in the Petit Bayonne. The
salesman in the bookstore was reading a Basque newspaper when we came in.
While
we were looking around, he greeted another customer in Basque and had a long
conversation. Once the conversation was
over, I asked the salesman for some recommendations on Basque music.
I
bought two cassettes of Basque church music, a Basque cookbook, and a copiously
illustrated book about the Basque Country in English.
We
ate a Basque restaurant called the Bar du Marché. Our simple lunch was delicious – grilled fish
with potatoes and salad followed by chocolate cake.
Laurent
and Florence conked out at the hotel. I
took a long walk outside and was happy with my 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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