Sept 18, 2023 - Venture to Bordeau

In the morning, we attended the optional tour to cross the border from France into Spain to discover the charming Basque town of Hondarrabia, which is known for its beautiful Basque houses and colorful wooden balconies. The local guide led us through the winding street and the beautiful houses. Then we had a little bit of free time. We walked over to Marina-Portua to enjoy the beautiful scenery. 

Later we will cross back into France and on to St. Jean de Luz, a fishing town at the mouth of the Nivelle river, in southwest France’s Basque country. It is a wealthy Basque port town with an intriguing past filled with pirates, and a royal marriage. We visited the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Church, where King Louis XIV married Marie-Thérèse of Spain in 1660.

We had free time to wander along the beach Plage de Lafitenia and walked all the way to La Colline Sainte-Barbe (the hill of Sainte Barbe) to see some of war time bunkers left by German.  However, there is not much of bunkers that we saw. But the view from the hill of Sainte Barbe is a real postcard of the landscapes of the Basque Country including mountain, ocean, the cliffs along with many sun bathers on the beach and surfers in the ocean.

There was a little accident when we were ready to leave.  One of the tour team mates missed the get together time. Eventually, he had to take a train ride to Bordeaux to meet us.

After we checked in the hotel, we ventured out to see Bordeaux. We walked to Place de la Bourse and Miroir d’Eau next to it. We got some more reflection photos.  

By 7pm, we got to the restaurant (restaurant Melodie) we planned to have dinner .  Unfortunately they were fully booked. Therefore, we had to move to Les Droles.  They were full on the ground level, but they gave us a table in the basement. It has a cave type of setup which provided us a new experience of having dinner in a cave.