Basque Country

Sunday morning in San Sabastian.  Have been here for a few days visiting friends Rose and Graham. They live in Vancouver and have rented an apt here for a month.  It was a pleasant surprise to find the city is so easy to drive around, none of the hectic traffic of most cities and the people everywhere continue to be so genuinely friendly it's a delight to talk to them
Yesterday we spent some hours in the Basque Museum of San Telmo and rambled around the old city. Lovely parks and sitting areas, wide streets and a most congenial social scene.  Of course the first walks here are to that glorious area where La Concha beach curves around the lovely bay

.  Very impressed by the Sallida sculptures among the churning foam around the blow holes.

 A nice ride on the funicular brought us to the complete view from above.  Each house has an individual style of architecture.















Believe it or not each glass of wine (large) is no more than €1.50 and on Thursdays there's a free Pintxos (Basque Tapas) with each beer usually €2 for both.  This city is famous for its terrific selection of these

Pals for so many many years

NEW FRIENDS

The lovely thing about camping is that one may travel alone but there's the opportunity to meet such

very interesting people along the way.  These two lovely English ladies Lou and Helen were camped

nearby and invited me to dinner.  Two lovely evenings before we went our separate ways for now.

Off to the other side of the border for a few days to Peyrehorade where I enjoyed the little camp site on the river so much last season

Start of Spanish Experience

I left Somerset for Portsmouth on 24th and took the ferry to Bilbao.  That was a two night crossing.  Ok with the usual inflated prices of ships.  Only small bottles of water for double the price of a large one on land etc.
Really enjoyed the visit to the Guggenheim in Bilbao.  A wonderful building and easily accessible.  An eye opening exhibition by Nike de Saint Phalle and all the beautiful surroundings and sculpturs outside.

 The traffic in the city of Bilbao is not too dense and easily manageable with parking no problem.  From the first encounter I have had only good experiences here in Basque land.  Smiles, nice people, beautiful empty strands with white coasted waves, birds hopping all around the car even Robins that are usually so shy. bars where a coffee costs little more than a euro and the same with a glass of wine and everywhere the same smiling attitude.  Definitely my kind of place where shops don't close for siesta before 2 pm and everything goes on until late at night with tapas, wine and all kinds of people being congenial outside little bars.

In Zarautz, not far from San Sebastian

Evening stroll to long long
beach

 I'm staying in a camp on top of that green hill.

Gran Camping Zarautz

Summer in Spain 2015

Back on the blog again after a long long pause.  Back because I've just started a new life yet again and at this advanced age.  I decided to sell my dear house in Ireland and have no address for a few years so we'll see what develops.  I just completed the sale 2 weeks ago and actually have not yet received any money from it but now my books are gone, the downsizing is complete and any remaining stuff is in storage in Kenmare.  I'm homeless except for living in my VW van Brandy.  Hurray.  Terry, bless her kind heart, came over and was terrific in wrapping up and making decisions something at which she excels.
I left Kenmare and progressed on from Ireland to Fishguard via ferry.  I went down from Wales to Somerset where there was a lovely weekend with Chris my friend in Ilminster.  Other friends of hers who I had met in Chiang Mai also came and it was great.  We went to Lyme Regis and there was a jazz performance and a lovely dinner made by Chris.

 Chris and Pauline.



Sunset from the ferry leaving Ireland

Lyme Regis.

BRITTANY

I'm spending all these last weeks in France wandering here and there around Brittany.  I've already been to St. Malo, Dinard, Dinan etc and am now in the lovely town of Joselin which resounds with many tales of Merlin, Vivian, Knights etc.  Today I'm planning to go to that magic forrest and explore it and it's folklore.  The villages are just charming.  All those wonderful, half timbered houses leaning crookedly along winding streets in different colours.  They look just as if one has stepped in to a film set or an opera and a Mario Lanza will stick his head out of a top window to serenade a lovely girl.
Creperies and Galettes are for sale everywhere along with the boulees full of cider.

Dordogne, La Rochelle, St. Emilion and Ile de Re

I've been twisting my way along hopping over to the Dardogne area and lovely Sarlat and Domme although I would rather go there when it isn't full season.  St. Emilion was just lovely.  All the wine Chateau's and cobblestone ways.
The port city of La Rochelle is just beautiful.  A very lively place with hundreds of restaurants and all of them buzzing.  France has so many recreation areas, green spaces, large parks, playground, bike paths and lovely ports all along this Atlantic coast.  The island of Ile de Re is just across a bridge from La Rochelle.  An expensive bridge as the toll is 16 euros while the Ile d'Oleron is free to enter but Ile de Re is so special.  All white washed houses with hollyhocks growing up in front of them and shutters of green or grey usually.  The whole island has all those hundreds of criss crossed bike paths so one just parks the car and goes everywhere on bikes to all the main littles towns on the island.  I'm based in the capital St Martin at the moment and there's a jazz festival on so there's free concerts nightly.  Skies are blue, there's oyster shacks along the bike paths, the sun is shining so I'm off to hop on the bike again.

Long lovely beaches

St Martin's Port

Lunch

BUZET SUR BAISE

I've found that the most peaceful, lovely places to camp and take a pause are close to a harbour on the river ways here.  So many people travel by boat here and many live on their boats or at least spend summers on them.  It is all very well arranged with a young man opening and closing the locks and there's lot's of facilities in port.  Many of them have a camping area for free or low cost so I came here for one night and have stayed for five.
Today I'll move a bit to the east to Sarlat and Bergerac before I go to Bordeaux and La Rochelle.