Visiting San Sebastian: Spain's Conch-Shelled Beach Town by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting San Sebastian: Spain’s Conch-Shelled Beach Town by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

On another vacation day in the French Basque country, my husband Laurent and I headed out for the town of San Sebastian in the Spanish Basque country, which is famous for its conch shell-shaped beach on the Atlantic.

On the way to the Spanish border, we passed Hendaye, which is the water sports capital of Southwestern France.  There are tons of surfboards with sails, water scooters, and water skiers out on the water there.  Of course, everyone is tan and very, very thin.

The border was non-existant; we just drove into Spain with a glance at our license plates by border control.

Once inside the town of San Sebastian, Laurent and I parked at the garage shared by the Maria Christina Hotel and Victoria Eugénie Theatre. 

The ocean comes directly into town in channels with ornately carved bridges over them.  San Sebastian is like Venice, but with less polluted water and air to breathe.

We visited the town’s churches and admired the conch-shelled beach and the Spanish well-to-do in their lace-accented clothing.  (Versace was big in the 1990s.)

San Sebastian is a favorite vacation destination for Spanish royalty, aristocrats, and bureaucrats, who would-be aristocrats from Madrid.  The aristocratic babies were decked out in lovely, lace outfits that were perfectly ironed.

Florence had drawers full of these kinds of clothes at home in Paris, but I was becoming fed up with ironing and dressed Florence in shorts and T-shirts or blue jean overalls with a T-shirt to play in.

Florence looked cute in her American jeans and waved and smiled at everyone just like a movie star. 

We went back to France to eat.  We had steaks, steamed potatoes with butter and parsley, and green beans at the Buffalo Grill that also played loud Rolling Stones music.  I always got extra Sauce Béarnaise there and a strawberry sundae for dessert.

After lunch, we visited the monastery’s museum when that opened after the siesta.

Then, we drove through the mountains to St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port, the spot where all the Camino de Santiago de Compostela routes converged before going into Spain.

At the top of the mountain, we arrived at Roncevalles and ate lunch at a monastery.  Roncevalles is famous as being the spot where the French knight Roland was killed.  His story is recorded in the French national epic entitled The Song of Roland.

The Basque houses in the mountains had orange, asymmetrical roofs to aid in letting rainwater fall far away from the house quickly, shutters on windows on these white-washed homes could be orange, brown, blue, or green.  Flowers were in bloom everywhere.

I still love driving through the countryside analyzing homes to see what materials they are built with and what cultural group they belong to. 

By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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