183. Spare me the analysis - where do I vote?

23rd April 2012. "Our" old village in the Pays Basque featured on lunchtime national TV news (TF1) today.. yes, it was time for Ascain (right) to hit the national consciousness. TF1 ran a piece that showed how the election voting process was handled in a far distant corner of France - and Ascain is about as far and as distant from Paris as it gets. There, it's the age-old tradition that voters first go to church to refresh their souls (Lord, give me strength!) - after which they repair to the bar of "our" small hotel to refresh their throats (Lord, give me another!) via a pastis or similar (& there's nothing quite so similar as another one!). Having fortified the major relevant elements of the inner man, they then feel up to stepping across the road to the Town Hall to attend to the small business of electing a president.

Election time in France is a curiously low key affair as, unlike in the UK, political posters don't appear in gardens or front windows of private houses, there are no witty bumper stickers and we haven't had a single leaflet stuffed into our mailbox - not a single one! We also haven't had to endure a single doorstep conversation with any party activists either. No, here it's all left to the broadcast and print media. The degree of media cynicism is remarkable though - a local newspaper shop displays advertising placards outside for national magazines and under a picture of the leading presidential candidates one magazine front cover asked "The biggest lies of the campaign - Who lies the most? Who lies the best?"

You'll be pleased to hear that there'll be no more election coverage here as I'm sure - if you're anything like your correspondent - you've had it up to here with politologues (political journalists) speculating over the minutiae of the political news. Suffice to say, win or lose, the talking, forecasting, denying, analysis, accusing, speculation, interviewing, extrapolating and prognosticating will carry on for a few more months yet until we're all brain dead with electrocephalagrams that will look like a drive across the prairies - because that's just the way politicians like us..!

France and Germany share a joint TV station known as ARTE and the following video is one of their productions. It features Aquitaine - which is the region of France where the Pays Basque is found. The film's starting point is the Pays Basque - and it covers pottoks (the wild ponies of the Pays Basque); Sare - where there's a piece on Pelote basque; the famous restaurant Chez Margot at Socoa (just across the bay from St Jean de Luz); Larressore - where they still make makhilas (I must get around to explaining these one day) and then it's up to Les Landes and an inside look at Course Landaise.. There's more but I haven't watched it right through myself yet.

 

182. Rain-fuelled rant!

18th April 2012. I came across this old map (below) the other day in a document someone sent me. I would say it must date back to pre-war times. What I find interesting about it is the amount of green space that lies between the towns to the west of the RN10 (highlighted in red).

Today, much of that has been built up and driving around the area, I'm constantly reminded of this as developers are steadily building on every available plot. Where vacant plots don't exist, existing buildings and often houses are torn down so that revenue-earning apartment blocks can be erected in their place. Nowadays, the three towns of Biarritz, Anglet and Bayonne that, pre-war, were completely separate are now effectively one and it's now known as the Agglomération Côte Basque-Adour. Try saying that with a mouthful of Gâteau Basque! This is one area of France where there are more buyers than sellers and my guess is that the nationwide drop in house prices that was reported yesterday won't apply here.

We spotted the new Cité de l'Océan (below) the other day when we were down on the sea front at Ilbarritz.. I've always thought that architects here in France are capable of creating the most stunning buildings or structures. They are equally capable of erecting the most monumental eyesores - like the one below.. (is that a building - or the box it came in?)

In the first category I would place buildings such as the dazzling Louvre Pyramid - conceived by I. M. Pei - that has more than a touch of genius to it. In my humble opinion it sits perfectly in front of the Louvre - and it looks as though it's always been there.

Then there's the breathtakingly hypnotic viaduct at Millau - designed by Norman Foster. This most elegant of structures defies the imagination in its extreme simplicity and, on seeing it for the first time, most people are reduced to an awed silence as they goggle at the bridge stepping out across the void with seemingly little to support it. To lend some scale to the picture, some of the support towers are higher than the Eiffel Tower.. Truly stunning.

In the second category are those that (in my view) miss the target completely. Examples? Well, close to home, there's the branch of the Caisse d'Epargne (savings bank) at Bayonne that, if only it was nearer the sea, could be offered to the Navy in times of national need to serve as a submarine pen. Built in the historic quarter of Bayonne, a few paces from the ancient cathedral, it's a deliberate slap in the face of history and without any redeeming qualities at all. Well, maybe one - the roof keeps the employees dry. (Happily, it's been demolished since I wrote the previous paragraph and some apartment blocks are going up in its stead).

Then there's that monument to industrial quantities of reinforced concrete - the Ministry of Finance, Bercy (below) in Paris. Again, brutal, squat and with a brooding mass, it straddles the riverside boulevard and juts out into the river Seine. It could well be George Orwell's Ministry of Truth (from his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four) What on earth were they thinking of..? No question - this has a top 3 place in my list of buildings that would be greatly improved by demolition. 

Then we come to the Pompidou Centre - or, as I like think of it, the Emperor's new clothes writ large in 15,000 tons of steel and 50,000 cubic metres of reinforced concrete. Again - what were they thinking of? There's a kind of intellectual arrogance at work here that says if you dislike the building/structure/oil rig (call it what you will) then you must be a reactionary old f**t.

Then there's the Opera at Bastille.. It looks like nothing less than the headquarters of an insurance company or a nuclear power station. Enough said.

By way of contrast, here's the magnificent Opéra Garnier and I don't think I need to add a single word:

When I look at Paris I see one of the most beautiful cities in the world. We have a duty to pass it on to succeeding generations intact - we don't have the right to vandalise it. What will these excrescences say about us to future generations? 

19th April 2012. I've been re-seeding 'this blessèd plot' (aka the lawn) and so far so good.. green shoots have appeared in all the right places. Fortunately April has brought with it many gentle showers - rather than the torrential downpours that we've often been at the receiving end of. The grass is looking green and hopefully this period of wet weather should ensure (ha-ha!) that the lawn has a fighting chance this year!

Just the other side of the Pyrenees lies the small town of Burguete in Navarre, Spain. It's known by some for one thing: it's where Ernest Hemingway lodged in 1924 & '25 en route to the running of the bulls at Pamplona.

The Basque country (on both sides of the border) would have been vastly different in those days with few concessions to tourism and it must have been a real pleasure to travel around it. While the coast has changed beyond all recognition, the inland regions remain more or less intact as they were - even in the height of summer few of the legions of tourists that throng the coastal resorts explore the hinterland. There, it's not difficult to understand the attraction the country had for the author. Here's an extract from "The Sun Also Rises" that describes the moment Hemingway and his friend arrived in Bayonne.

In the morning it was bright, and they were sprinkling the streets of the town, and we all had breakfast in a café. Bayonne is a nice town. It is like a very clean Spanish town and it is on a big river. Already, so early in the morning, it was very hot on the bridge across the river. We walked out on the bridge and then took a walk through the town.

I was not at all sure Mike's rods would come from Scotland in time, so we hunted a tackle store and finally bought a rod for Bill up-stairs over a drygoods store. The man who sold the tackle was out, and we had to wait for him to come back. Finally he came in, and we bought a pretty good rod cheap, and two landing-nets.

We went out into the street again and took a look at the cathedral. Cohn made some remark about it being a very good example of something or other, I forget what. It seemed like a nice cathedral, nice and dim, like Spanish churches. Then we went up past the old fort and out to the local Syndicat d'Initiative office, where the bus was supposed to start from. There they told us the bus service did not start until the 1st of July. We found out at the tourist office what we ought to pay for a motor-car to Pamplona and hired one at a big garage just around the corner from the Municipal Theatre for four hundred francs. The car was to pick us up at the hotel in forty minutes, and we stopped at the café on the square where we had eaten breakfast, and had a beer. It was hot, but the town had a cool, fresh, early-morning smell and it was pleasant sitting in the café. A breeze started to blow, and you could feel that the air came from the sea. There were pigeons out in the square, and the houses were a yellow, sun-baked color, and I did not want to leave the café. But we had to go to the hotel to get our bags packed and pay the bill. We paid for the beers, we matched and I think Cohn paid, and went up to the hotel. It was only sixteen francs apiece for Bill and me, with ten per cent added for the service, and we had the bags sent down and waited for Robert Cohn. While we were waiting I saw a cockroach on the parquet floor that must have been at least three inches long. I pointed him out to Bill and then put my shoe on him. We agreed he must have just come in from the garden. It was really an awfully clean hotel.

Cohn came down, finally, and we all went out to the car. It was a big, closed car, with a driver in a white duster with blue collar and cuffs, and we had him put the back of the car down. He piled in the bags and we started off up the street and out of the town. We passed some lovely gardens and had a good look back at the town, and then we were out in the country, green and rolling, and the road climbing all the time. We passed lots of Basques with oxen, or cattle, hauling carts along the road, and nice farmhouses, low roofs, and all white-plastered. In the Basque country the land all looks very rich and green and the houses and villages look well-off and clean. Every village had a pelota court and on some of them kids were playing in the hot sun. There were signs on the walls of the churches saying it was forbidden to play pelota against them, and the houses in the villages had red tiled roofs, and then the road turned off and commenced to climb and we were going way up close along a hillside, with a valley below and hills stretched off back toward the sea. You couldn't see the sea. It was too far away. You could see only hills and more hills, and you knew where the sea was.

20th April 2012. I remember reading an old saying amongst carpenters, "Measure twice, cut once.." and for some reason I woke up this morning with it in my head. It struck me that that philosophy could be applied to many areas of life.

Before making the decision to move here from England, for example, I remember making a list of the pros & cons for making the move and another list of all the risks. The first list proved pretty conclusive in terms of whether or not a move was the correct decision. As for the second list, all the risks I identified could be managed - except one: the currency exchange rate. As most of our income was in £ sterling, and we were moving to the euro-zone, this had my full attention. I thought the worst that could happen would be that the £ would gradually decline in value against the euro over the years. We were prepared for that eventuality and so we moved across.

Soon after we moved however, the exchange rate turned out to be the very risk that bit us and it bit us hard. In Britain, Gordon Brown (an unelected nobody who was doing Prime Minister impressions at the time) let the pound slump in value - an unprecedented 30% drop - against the euro in a few short months. He didn't declare it a devaluation - he simply didn't call it anything. He just carried on sleepwalking as though nothing had happened. Fortunately, we'd done our planning and we had sufficient flex to be able to live through it - but the importance of planning wasn't lost on us.

If anyone reading this is thinking of making a similar move, I'd say the hardest part is not the move itself, but taking the decision to move. Once you've decided, the rest should happen according to your plan.

22nd April 2012. We've been having a fair share of rain lately and the garden is thankfully sprouting in all directions! I took the dog down to the beach at Anglet this morning - there was a fresh westerly wind blowing in a few showers from the Bay of Biscay, the slate green sea was rearing up in choppy waves and there were a fair number of surfers out there. All very bracing! Needless to say, the dog's ears were horizontal!

181. April showers in the Pays Basque

6th April 2012. Forecast for the morning is for rain, but as they often get it wrong for this corner of Aquitaine, I'll take a peek out of the windows in the morning to see if rowing is on the cards. As it's the first Saturday of the month, it's also the day for an apéro after the outing..

Haven't played any Chet Baker in a while so - to put that right - here he is with Almost blue:

And another - Around Midnight - the classic late night jazz track that Thelonious Monk made all his own - but played here by Chet:   

7th April 2012. A good row this morning - had an outing in a mixed VIII and we did 14km.. Stayed on a bit longer afterwards as it was that time of the month (1st Saturday) for an attitude adjuster! Still haven't got used to drinking whisky at midday though.. Had a quick word with Perle Bouge who was there having a vigorous work-out on a rowing machine. She said she'll be going to the Olympics in July. In case you haven't read previous posts about her, she was involved in a road accident I believe when she was 19 and is now confined to a wheelchair. Despite that, she took up rowing a couple of years ago and won a Silver medal at the recent World Championships in New Zealand. She has a fierce determination to succeed and I hope her efforts will be rewarded this summer.

I know I included this track by Amy Winehouse fairly recently but I make no apologies for putting it in again. She had one of the best female jazz/blues voices of my memory. Such a tragedy that her personal life spiralled out of control the way it did.

Jardin Public, Biarritz (in 2006)

10th April 2012. Situated opposite the magnificent old station (now the theatre) in Biarritz, the Jardin Public used to be a haven of 'coolth' and shade even on the hottest of wind-free summer days when the heat can sometimes wrap the Côte Basque in a clammy embrace like a warm damp blanket. The square was a leafy green enclave shaded by some mightily tall old trees and it was the perfect place to pause on a bench after lunch in the tranquil shade offered by the canopy high above. The dog enjoyed the respite from the hot pavements too and it wouldn't take him long before he'd be 'paws-up' on the grass having a snooze. There were some ancient cedars that spread their limbs out high and wide and others (chestnuts perhaps?) that I couldn't name to save my life. Here it is (left) as it was in 2006.

Unfortunately, a great storm screamed in out of the Bay of Biscay in January 2009 and it devastated the coast from the Pays Basque up as far as Bordeaux - flattening 60% of the endless pine forests of Les Landes. It wreaked havoc with these majestic old trees in the Jardin Public as can be seen here:

Here's a tree going down in that great storm.. 

Now, the Jardin Public has totally lost its former oasis-like quality, as the removal of the trees has exposed it completely to the relentless heat of the sun. While it's no longer possible to sit there in summer and unwind in the shade, it remains a favourite place at other times of the year. If we could afford a house (haha!) or, more realistically, an apartment in the centre of Biarritz, something around here would figure high on our wish list. 

12th April 2012. It's been a while since I've featured a Basque choir and one of the very best is Gogotik.. This particular one by them always sends a shiver through me:

I've been meaning to mention the Musée Basque in Bayonne for some time.. It is a remarkable collection - I believe the largest collection of Basque artefacts anywhere - and no visit to Bayonne should overlook it. It starts off with simple displays of the pastoral life of the Basques and as you penetrate through to the upper floors the scope gradually widens until the full glories of the museum's contents are revealed. (By the way, admission is free on the first Sunday of the month).

I've previously mentioned here the emblematic painter Spanish Basque Ramiro Arrue who captured the stylised essence of Basqueness in his work to such an extent that his vision of the Pays Basque is still shared by many and it endures here to this day. Here's a two-part video about him:    

This next clip features some of the distinctive headstones that may be found in the cemeteries here. They're not sad places, lying forgotten under a few dripping yew trees with weeds rampant - they're kept spotless (like the rest of the Pays Basque) and provide another insight into Basque culture.   

180. First siesta of the year

22nd March 2012. After the shocking events in Montauban and Toulouse were resolved this morning, I think it's time for a reminder that Man is capable of producing works of great beauty as well as the most horrific of crimes. As you listen to Daniel Barenboim conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with the Adagietto from Gustav Mahler's Symphony No 5, spare a thought for the families who are mourning the loss of loved ones:

24th March 2012. It was a lovely warm morning down by the river and there was a good turn-out. I went out in a mixed ability VIII sculler and it's always sorties like these that are the most tiring. I was at 2 (which corresponds to 7 in the UK/US) and the upriver leg was fine. We stopped after 10 minutes to take our warm-up tops off as they were clearly redundant. At the turn-around point, the cox and the stroke changed over and the return leg was - how to say it - less rewarding. We did 14km.

We had lunch outside on the terrace again today.. and I finished up with a Greek coffee and a contemplative cigarillo.. I was still getting over the morning sortie and the heat coupled with a glass or two of wine had me ready for a siesta.

At the end of the afternoon, we went for a drink on the terrace of the bar/restaurant La Plancha (above), on the beach at Bidart, just below the Château d'Ilbarritz (mentioned a couple of posts ago). It must have been 22-24C out there on the terrace. Definitely a new addition to my list.

Here's another look at the Château d'Ilbarritz..
Here's something that sounds as fresh today as the day it was recorded - in 1959!

In case you've ever wondered who the great undiscovered literary talent behind this blog is - pause while the guffaws die down - I've decided to respond to several requests and break cover at last.

Here's a fairly recent photograph of me hard at it at the editorial desk! This must have been taken on a 'dress down Friday' and it looks like the pressures of getting the latest post out and the long working days are slowly getting to me..

26th March 2012. We ate outside on the terrace this evening for the first time this year.. Now where did I put my Eric Morecambe shorts?

27th March 2012. A perfect evening's row up the river on a warm, still evening - shorts and t shirt in the boat for the first time this year. 14km. Once back home, after a quick shower and change, it was straight out to our west-facing terrace for a roast farm chicken eased down with a glass or two of Burgundy. Afterwards, I sat there feeling pleasantly tired in the evening sunlight listening to the sound of birds twittering and the distant hum of traffic as I watched the pale contrails of jets as they sped silently northwards. It was with great reluctance that I replaced the cork in the bottle! As my uncle used to say: you've got to know when to hold, know when to fold and know when to walk away.

29th March 2012. We decided to go to San Sebastian this morning to try and achieve terminal meltdown of my credit card. Don't get any big ideas though - two packets of peanuts would be enough to do that! The first strange thing was that we were waved through the first motorway toll that we came to in Spain.. and then on arrival at our favourite underground parking garage in downtown San Sebastian, it was suspiciously easy to find a space.

Ayuntamiento (or, in more prosaic Anglo-Saxon speak - Council Buildings), San Sebastian

Then when we emerged into the daylight we noticed that every shop was closed. Not only every shop, but also there was not a single kiosk, bar, café or restaurant open. The streets were curiously busy and there were flyers scattered everywhere on the pavements in Spanish and Basque proclaiming that today was a General Strike. Sure enough, we spotted some red flags in the distance as groups of strikers started gathering. Walking through town we half expected to find at least one little dissident café open for business but no - the Basque solidarity was impressive. It was a beautiful day too for bumbling around shops pensioner-style but after a while we realised that nice though San Sebastian is to wander around, there's not much point if everything, as in everything, is closed.

Maria Christina bridge

So it was back to the car and we headed off back towards France again. I think we got away just in time as a massive demonstration was forming up across the river to march into town - and that would cause traffic chaos. The column was at least 20 people wide and it stretched back for ½ mile probably.

By this stage, stomachs were threatening wild cat strike action if food wasn't taken pronto so we swung off the motorway at Saint-Jean-de-Luz and a few minutes later we were installed on the terrace of Chez Pantxua at Socoa. Just look away for the next few minutes while I recall what we had - mmmm-mmmmm - OK, it's safe to come back now! Suffice to say, it's the best place for seafood by 1.6km. (that's a mile to you!) Almost forgot - two hungry strike-breaking Spanish couples sat down at the next table and in a touching display of solidarity with the strikers they started by ordering a bottle of Bollinger* - the ladies had foie gras to start with while the men had oysters..

Madame Lily Bollinger

* It was Madame Bollinger (right) who famously said of champagne - “I drink it when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and I drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it, unless I’m thirsty”.

It was such a beautiful late afternoon that I raised myself from my post-lunch snooze stretched out on the terrace (in swimming trunks no less!) to get changed for an evening row. It turned out that I was the only bloke-type person there and so we put an VIII out on the water. I must say it went very well, apart from a congenital need to stop for a chat at suitable intervals..! Joking aside, it was a very worthwhile sortie and it felt like a crew that had rowed together for some time. So Tick VG from me! Think we did 12km.

31st March 2012. Down to the river again this morning (four times in a week!) and had an outing in a mixed VIII. We rowed as far as Villefranque before turning where another VIII caught up with us. G, our always-cheerful responsable, coach and all-round good guy, who was with us in a speedboat, thought it would be a good idea if the two VIIIs raced each other back to the clubhouse (known curiously in French as the 'garage'). If I was sitting comfortably in a speedboat on a sunny morning that's just the kind of idea that I might have had too! We gave the other crew a head start and then we were off.. It wasn't long before we could hear the splashing of the other crew as we drew closer plus the various incomprehensible shouted exhortations which seemed to consist mainly of "Ensemble!".. (ie, together) - which gave me heart as it indicated that they weren't.. Gradually the stern of their boat came into view and we steadily overhauled them before building a nice lead of 2-3 lengths. About 2km from home, we both stopped for another go. This time we started level and after ten strokes we were up on them and going away. All good fun! Did 18km all in all.

Blew the dust off my shorts and I took them and the dog for a walk after a quick shower.. 31st March too!

I was taking an inventory of the fridge contents after lunch (OK, aka casual thieving!) and I noticed a packet of Ossau-Iraty cheese in the cheese box. If you've been paying attention (Post #179 refers) you'll remember that this is the cheese that's been adjudged to be the Best Cheese in the World.. I might just try some this evening.

1st April 2012. The two local rugby clubs in the Pays Basque aren't having their finest season. Aviron Bayonnais are firmly in the drop zone of the Top 14 and after yesterday's dire performance against fellow strugglers Perpignan (final score 47-9) the only possible conclusion to be drawn is that Bayonne are going to go down. Meanwhile, Biarritz (also down amongst the pond life of the Top 14) played out of their skins yesterday to squeeze a much-needed victory by a 1 point margin against Clermont (who are 2nd in the Top 14). Now where's the logic in that?

4th April 2012. I'm afraid I've been neglecting the broad sunlit uplands of Blogistan lately but, as always, I have a convincing explanation. I've been knee-deep in reviewing, correcting and occasionally re-writing just shy of 1,000 PowerPoint slides on aircraft flight deck instruments of every flavour - some of which hadn't even been thought of when I was last directly involved in aviation.. As you might expect, a thorough understanding of flight deck instrumentation in minute detail takes centre stage in any Commercial Pilots course and so it is that I've been burning the midnight oil lately, wearing a flat spot on my backside, armed with a couple of hefty technical Anglo-French dictionaries, trying to make sense of some of the slides and put them in Angliche.

No-brainer question du jour: "So whyja wanna be an airline pilot, son?"

Young man's dream (or fantasy!)

179. Cheese, seaplanes & San Sebastian

16th March 2012. News has just filtered through to these parts that Ossau-Iraty (right) - a cheese made from ewe's milk in the Pays Basque - was awarded the title of the Best Cheese in the World (English version here) in November last year at the BBC Good Food Show in Birmingham (UK). To be honest, with a product like cheese that's so inherently diverse in all its forms, I fail to see how one cheese can ever be awarded the accolade of the Best Cheese in the World. I know I've often said here that as far as I'm concerned that Vacherin Mont d'Or is the tops but it's all so subjective and in the end it all comes down to personal preference. I suspect that marketing plays a huge part in this award and I'm sure that the makers of Ossau-Iraty will experience a significant upswing in sales over the next few months. It's a cheese I'm quite familiar with and I must admit that it's nice enough but, when eating it, the thought that it's the World's Best Cheese never crossed my mind. It's served here with black cherry jam - this is available online here, along with a selection of other typically Basque products. This beautifully made short video shows the Ossau-Iraty cheese-making process from start to finish:

Born in the wrong decade? Charmed by old aircraft? Does the romance of pioneering aviation resonate even just a little bit with you? The roar of radial engines? Yes? There's an International Seaplane gathering held at Biscarrosse in Les Landes on a regular basis.

Here's the Dornier Do 24 ATT (unfortunately with 3 turbo-props, not piston engines) that conjures up some of the magic of those early machines. 

This Consolidated Catalina amphibian (with its 2 Pratt & Whitney radial engines) taxys low down on water - more in it than on it - in the manner of a floating log. I imagine a take-off in choppy water could be a little sporty!

Last Thursday saw the passing of one of the giants of the rugby world - Mervyn Davies aka Merv the Swerve. Remember those great Welsh rugby teams of the 70s? They played some of the best rugby ever seen anywhere - no ifs or buts. He was one of its stalwarts (& they were all stalwarts) and eventually captained the side. He was part of the only Lions side ever to win a series in New Zealand (1971). In his 46 international appearances for Wales and the Lions, Davies was on the losing side on only nine occasions. With Wales, his record was 26 wins, eight defeats and four draws; with the British and Irish Lions, five wins, one defeat and two draws. RIP Mervyn.

18th March 2012. The weather conditions were favourable for a sortie out on the lower reaches of Adour yesterday so we took a couple of VIIIs and a IV down under the bridges through town and out onto the big river. We were in a new carbon fibre VIII which was very stiff and balanced well and we set off in fine style past the outdoor Saturday market towards, onto the Adour and down river towards the sea. Unfortunately, as we approached the navigable channel, we encountered a rolling swell which in our sort of boat was not good news. So, we cut our losses and returned to the Nive which felt like a flat calm after the Adour. As it was going well, we rowed past the pontoon and continued upstream for a few km before returning home. 16km.

Well done to Wales for taking the Grand Slam in this year's 6 Nations Rugby Tournament, winning 16-9 against France yesterday in Cardiff. England finished second after a convincing 30-9 win against a depleted Irish XV while Scotland picked up the Wooden Spoon after falling victim to Italy 13-6.

To finish up with, here's the late lamented Keith Floyd having fun with the Basques on the other side of the border in San Sebastian. He's absolutely spot on when he says that people here (on both sides) talk about food with a rare passion. Whenever we've had friends around for dinner, the conversation inevitably turns to a discussion of what they're eating, what they have eaten or what they're going to eat. People are expected to have strong opinions on all the different kinds of meat, fish, poultry, cheese, wine & bread and where best to buy it all - or where best to eat it. Anyway, don't let me keep you from the pleasure of Keith's company:

 

178. The mysterious Château d'Ilbarritz

12th March 2012. What a great heart-warming performance yesterday by England in beating France 24-22 in Paris in the penultimate round of this year's 6 Nations rugby tournament (the best sporting competition in the world in my view!). Watching the teams singing the national anthems in the last few minutes before the kick-off, I must admit that the republican in me is drawn to "La Marseillaise" - one of the great national anthems - whereas I have to say that England's "God Save the Queen" leaves me totally unmoved. 

However, once that whistle is blown, and the white shirts start mixing it with the blue ones, then I become a 100% fully committed supporter of England (albeit from my armchair!). I can't imagine a moment when I could think of supporting any other country. While I have nothing but total respect and admiration for Martin Johnson as a player, I'm afraid that under his guidance England stuttered badly - all too often the ball went sideways. With the benefit of hindsight I think he showed too much loyalty to the elder statesmen of the England squad. And then there were those off the pitch banana skins..

England's try scorers -
Ben Foden, Tom Croft and Manu Tuilagi 

On the other hand, his successor Stuart Lancaster, the interim coach, has picked players based on their current form and they are playing an attractive brand of attacking rugby that I, and many others, have waited many a year to see them play. The new coach has transformed a pedestrian and somewhat unimaginative England side into one with growing self-belief and the confidence to move the ball quickly with a refreshing directness from the breakdown out to the lively backs. Hopefully the England RFU will confirm his appointment in the next few days. 

France are no dummies however - they were the beaten finalists (some say unfairly) in last year's Rugby World Cup and yesterday's match was the first home defeat for them in the Six Nations since they were last beaten there 4 years ago (again by England). In the end, and with only a couple of minutes remaining, Trinh-Duc attempted a drop goal that just failed to clear the cross bar. If he'd been successful with that kick, France might have won by a point. By such narrow margins are matches like these won or lost. I think a win would have flattered France as England clearly were the better side, scoring 3 tries to a late French one. Here are the highlights:

I also think that England were unfairly penalised by the referee Alain Rolland. I think a neutral ref should have been found for this game - Mr Rolland has a French father! If the tables were turned, I can't imagine that France would have been content to accept a referee who was half English - so I think his selection by the IRFU (?) was unwise. We watched the match with some French friends in Biarritz (Madame had to keep nudging me to keep quiet!) and afterwards we all went for a blowy walk along the sea front just underneath the Château d'Ilbarritz (not far from the new Cité de l'Océan).

The Château d'Ilbarritz is a truly magnificent house located high up on a hill with the kind of views looking out to the west across the bay to Spain that estate agents dream of. It was constructed between 1895-7 for Baron Albert de l'Espée whose family were heirs to an immense fortune founded on steel.

In the closing years of the 19th century, medical science was of the opinion that fresh sea air was the universal cure for many ailments and so Baron de l'Espée decided that there was no better place to have a house built than on the Côte Basque. So far so good! The Baron acquired a massive 60 hectares (148 acres) plot of land "unpolluted by other people" 2 kms to the south of the glamorous seaside resort of Biarritz where his new house would stand overlooking the blue Atlantic waters of the Golfe de Gascogne (Bay of Biscay). However, this would be no ordinary house. The Baron was, to say the least, something of a character and has been described elsewhere as a fabulously wealthy, mad, megalomaniac, hypochondriac, latter day Monte Cristo. Passionate about pipe organs, he had the Château designed to accommodate the largest pipe organ ever built (below) for a private client and there he would play Wagner with the loud pedal pressed to the floor and with the windows wide open! This organ is now to be found in what is probably the most photographed church in France - Sacré-Coeur in Montmartre (more here). This is good cocktail party trivia for when it all goes quiet!

It's impossible to imagine the deafening impact of the "Ride of the Valkyries"  played on a large pipe organ like this in a private house - with the windows thrown wide open, the sound of the thundering surf outside, the guttering candlelight throwing wild shadows, the majestic sounds of the mighty organ ringing out across the waves, the tormented face of the Baron in his own private moonlit ecstasy..

The Baron would surely have included this next piece in his repertoire - Wagner's stirring "Tannhauser Overture"  played here magnificently by Jonathan Scott again, on a similar 4 manual instrument to that of the Baron. Strap yourselves in and turn your volume up into the red zone for maximum effect!

And here is the Baron's celebrated organ installed at the Sacré-Coeur Basilica, Paris:  

What the locals made of all this is not recorded but the Baron may possibly have been the original inspiration for the Phantom of the Opera! There's more of the curious story of the Baron and his lady friend Biana Duhamel here.

During WWII, the Château served as a German Headquarters on the Côte Basque.

   

It appears that (at the time of writing) the Château d'Ilbarritz is for sale.

It's always interesting to see a town you're familiar with through the eyes of someone else. We'd not visited this particular stretch of coast before and so walking along the coastal path with the high spring tide just yards away was very pleasant indeed. There are a couple of restaurants here too - the Blue Cargo and La Plancha - that face directly onto the sea - it's hard to imagine that they could be any closer. Either of these look perfect for a summer's evening and we'll definitely be going there when the evenings are warmer. 

Returning to our friends' house via a tangle of narrow unmarked streets, our host (a former fighter pilot and a native Biarrot) took us on a quick guided tour of parts of Biarritz that we normally never find ourselves in - pointing out to us Serge Blanco's anonymous-looking house tucked discreetly away in a quiet area for example. Needless to say, there are some very attractive neighbourhoods there. (ker-ching!) He also pointed out that the gently curving Porte de Biarritz we were on had been built on the path of the former branch line that led from the mainline station at Biarritz-La Négresse to the town centre station (above) at Biarritz-Ville (known by all here as the Gare du Midi) and thought by many to be the most beautiful and elegant of all French railway stations (now transformed into a splendid theatre). The trains would arrive at the level of the clock in the photo above and then the passengers would descend the stairs down to the road level. In the heyday of Biarritz, this is how the crowned heads of state, the titled from all over Europe and the rich and famous would arrive to take their carriages to their villas and hotels.

Following the proliferation of the railway across Europe, Biarritz became one of the destinations of choice in the 19th century. The advent of the railway made travel to the extreme south west of France a practical proposition for the first time and the rapid expansion of the European rail network had a knock-on effect on the development of the Côte Basque. What had been a quiet Basque fishing village was about to be transformed into the Biarritz that we know today. The railway opened up the region to wealthy Parisiens and others - such as the Baron de l'Espée - and the coast was never quite the same again. The English gentry also came here in droves - especially in winter - leaving a permanent mark in the form of golf, rugby - and tea rooms!

13th March 2012. I was still in my dressing gown and unshaven at 9.30am on Monday morning as I was watching a repeat of Sunday's France vs England 6 Nations match on BBC to try and understand all the penalty decisions that went against England and, if I'm honest, to re-live the hard-fought and well-deserved win in Paris.

The council has decided to put all overhead wires underground and EDF (the electricity company) is taking advantage of the opportunity to rewire our mains supply. Last year it was the turn of an adjacent avenue and it took around 4 months for all the work to be completed. So it was that at 9.30am the doorbell rang and I opened the door to a young man with a camera who announced himself to me as a lawyer. He explained that he was there to talk about the work that's just about to start in the avenue. He wanted to take 'before' photographs to ensure that properties were properly restored to their former condition when the work is finally completed. If there is any damage to property resulting from their work, restorative action can be taken based on his photographic records. I must admit to being very pleasantly surprised and reassured by this initiative. Well done Bayonne!  

Nice outing this evening in a quad sculler.. did 14km. Here's a link about rowing that explains the sport well.

177. Spring in the Pays Basque

29th February 2012. As it was a warm afternoon (somewhere around 16-17C) I wheeled my bike out for the first time this year, pumped up the tyres and, after putting a few drops of oil on the chain, set off through town to ride along the bank of the river Nive south as far as Ustaritz. With it still being school holidays, there were quite a few mums out there with small children on bikes wobbling every which way and, of course, the customary roller bladers, dog walkers, joggers and other cyclists.

I was determined to do the outward leg without stopping and, to be honest, I felt OK. Returning was a different story however. Even with a gel pad on the seat, I felt every bump, cobblestone, ridge and pothole on the way back. Was I ever glad to finally pull up at the house after around 24km or so.. (I know, it's hardly Tour de France territory) That shower felt good! 

At one point, the cycle lane goes under the main A63 autoroute that runs into Spain and you would never guess from the volume of freight traffic that we're supposed to be in an economic crisis. There seemed to be a constant stream of articulated lorries spaced every 50 yards either heading towards or coming out of Spain. 

1st March 2012. I had a very pleasant stroll around Biarritz this morning - there weren't too many people about in the bright sunshine as I explored the maze of old streets with their dazzlingly white houses above the old port. I emerged near the newly re-opened Aquarium where I stopped to take in the stunning view of the inviting blue sea as it rolled into the bay, dominated by the stately presence of the Hotel du Palais. I couldn't help thinking how lucky we'd been to find ourselves exactly where we'd always dreamed of living.

Meeting up with Madame later on, the plan was to have a lunch of grilled sardines at Casa Pedro in the Port des Pêcheurs (right) but when we got down there, it was closed due to some re-surfacing work. We thought we'd try Bar Jean (photos here) up by the market but it wasn't our day - all the tables outside were taken - so we found a table inside. They have a new menu and grilled sardines are now a wallet busting 12€ - they're usually 8-9€. I wonder if the market price is up with it being early in the season.

El Presidente was in town today and the usual suspects (Militant Parti Socialiste (PS) and Basque separatists) turned up in force to give him a warm welcome - that is, if you call jeering, pushing and shoving your Head of State a warm welcome. Displays like the scenes shown on national television are not normally seen in one of the major European nations - they're of the sort usually reserved for some fly-blown Third World state. In the interests of his safety he had to take refuge in a bar* for some time. I think the response from President Sarkozy was measured, balanced and statesmanlike.
* I think I've used this same line myself in the past! 

2nd March 2012. I came across a slideshow of French villages this morning. It struck me that one of the reasons that many of us are attracted to these ancient villages is because we look at them as if we're in a living Time Machine.. They show us how we used to live a simpler, more fulfilling life before the advent of rows of identical brick houses, sodium street lights, double yellow lines painted all over our roads and all the rest of it - before we lost our sense of community.

3rd March 2012. Beautiful morning for the river - it was dry, warm and sunny and so I rode down to the club on my bike only to find that I was press-ganged into an VIII this morning rigged for rowing (as opposed to sculling). It was what could best be called a 'mixed ability' crew and unfortunately we weren't ever able to control the balance properly, despite numerous exercises designed to reveal the culprit(s)! ("It wasn't me, your Honour!") This made for an uncomfortable sortie. Despite that, we continued up river as far as the passerelle (footbridge) at Villefranque which turned it into an 18km outing.

This afternoon I walked into town and noticed a gathering in front of the Monument aux Morts. There were military units in their kepis and maroon berets, a large turn-out of proud old soldiers with their standards and a fair number of politicians including Marc Laffineur, the Minister for Anciens Combattants. He stepped up to the microphone and made an excellent speech which even mentioned the contribution made by the Réseau Comète. A lady next to me said it was much better than the events of the other day (referring to the demo against the President while he was in Bayonne). I had to agree with her.

4th March 2012. Really looking forward to the next instalment of the Six Nations rugby this afternoon.. it's France - Ireland. This game was cancelled at the last minute in Paris a couple of weeks ago as the pitch was bone hard in the freezing conditions. (oddly, the Stade de France doesn't have undersoil heating?)

Who do I want to win? Easy!! Most people have two teams - the one that they owe their allegiance to by virtue of their nationality - and then a favourite. My second team is, and always has been, Ireland with legendary Irish players back in the day like Mike Gibson, Willie John McBride and Fergus Slattery lighting up the stage wherever they played.

Ireland's opponents today - France - weren't convincing against Scotland and they're without the injured Maxime Médard, their great full-back. Clement Poitrenaud plays at 15 and his handling is suspect under the high ball so I would expect that Ireland will use the up-and-under to try and force an error or three out of him. I've always been a big fan of William Servat, the powerful French hooker known for his bullocking runs with the ball in hand, but curiously, he starts on the bench - perhaps to be brought on with 20 minutes to go. I expect Ireland to win this one!

7th March 2012. The Irish XV gave it their best on Sunday.. I was fairly confident that they'd be able to build on their 17-6 half time lead to seal the match - but France raised their game in the second half and it finished as a 17-17 draw. I usually find draws unsatisfying but in this case I think both sides could take some positives out of this great match. I thought Ireland's Tommy Bowe had an absolutely electric game.. he was so close to scoring a couple more interception tries like the one he did score. He made that one look so easy. There aren't many others around with his speed of thought and the ability to execute. A rare talent. Here he is scoring his second.. According to a few armchair pundits, he should have done this or that - but what a try! 
On Sunday afternoon we're off to our friends in Biarritz to watch the France-England match. This promises to be a fascinating confrontation. Under the guidance of Stuart Lancaster, England's interim coach, the "Quinze de la Rose" (as the French commentators insist in calling England) are playing with some verve, dash and lack of fear for once. I thought they took mighty Wales to the wire in their last game with Wales only scoring their winning try with 5 minutes left on the clock. And France, as they showed against Ireland, are capable of great things once they decide to play. Young Owen Farrell should have a big influence on the game but I also expect France's Thierry Dusautoir (aka the Dark Destroyer) will be more than keen to make sure he doesn't. Extremely difficult to predict a result but I have to hope for an English win. 

Changing the subject completely - I finally worked out this morning how to centralise the blog title at the top of the page.. This has been bugging me on and off for months. There was no easy solution - ie, click on this or that button - nope, I had to get into the HTML code and insert a new line of code.. all very nerve-wracking in case I managed to screw things up completely.

8th March 2012. I took the dog down through the Place des Basques this morning to a couple of parks that face the river Adour. A few council workmen were busy tidying things up after the winter here and everything was looking spruce. All the bushes, shrubs and trees had been neatly manicured in the French fashion, lawn edgings were well-defined and tree roots were covered in yellow sand. The litter bins are emptied regularly here and it is rare to see people dropping litter away in the same casual manner than is the norm in the UK. There are dispensers of free plastic bags just about everywhere for déjections canines but I'm afraid using them appears to be beyond some people. So the motto for today is keep your dancing shoes on when out and about!

10th March 2012. Very nice sortie this morning.. it was cold first thing ~3°C.. Went out in a mecs coxless IV en pointe.. (sweep rowing) Getting in the boat I somehow managed to dip a leg (up to my knee) in a very cold river - so I had a fairly soggy outing. Did 14km and overtook an VIII on the return so came home feeling pleased with ourselves! After that, we had a very welcome apéro..

This evening on France 4 it's the Under 20s France vs England rugby as a precursor to the main event tomorrow. The faux English accents were much in evidence this morning!

Watching the rugby this afternoon - Wales v Italy followed by Ireland v Scotland - all this talk of "Crouch" .... "Touch" .... "Pause" .... "Engage" put me in mind of that old joke about Australian male foreplay - the one where he nudges his sheila in the ribs and asks "You awake?"

176. Biarritz dazzles

18th February 2012. We're gradually emerging from the icy grip of the cold spell that's affected most of Western Europe for the past few weeks. We've been more or less housebound for all that time - it having been too cold to venture out much further than the dog's usual walk. This morning it was 4°C as I left to go down to the river.. and at the riverside it felt very cold indeed. The river was low (low tide) which meant that the frost-covered ramp leading down to the pontoon sloped at a perilously steep angle. Despite the cold however, there were healthy numbers of us down there and enough turned up to be able to put 3 VIIIs out on the water plus 1 or 2 IVs and some sculling boats. I went out as stroke with a mixed crew in an VIII sculler (an octuple). This was my first outing for 2 weeks and I can still feel the after-effects late in the afternoon.. (creak, groan) Once we'd warmed up, we did some interval training - which made the time pass! In the end, we did 14km.

New apartment block

This afternoon we went for a walk around Biarritz with the dog. The sea front was blissfully free of the usual hordes and it was very fresh with a dazzling light. We weren't able to take the dog into the legendary Patisserie Confiserie Miremont so we stopped instead at the Plaza Hotel and sat outside in the sunshine. Think it was ~11-12°C. Walking down the Avenue Reine Victoria there was a gap on the buildings as though a tooth had been pulled. Sure enough, the house that had been there before has now completely vanished - the adjacent buildings were marked with the outline of its roof - and so no prizes for guessing what's going to replace it? Yes, yet another apartment block (above) is going up in its place. And, of course, the Town Hall won't have complained to the developers as the new apartment block will bring in more tax than the house it replaced. So gradually, the old buildings that give the town its identity are slowly disappearing. Just across the road, there used to be an old garage that had been there since the dawn of the automobile age. The closure signs went up last year and then a few months ago it disappeared in a cloud of dust and the huge site is being developed to take yet another apartment block.

20th February 2012. Went to see Meryl Streep in the "The Iron Lady" yesterday in Biarritz. What a stunning performance by her and one that will surely be marked with a well-deserved Oscar. I think it is the finest acting performance on film that I've ever seen. Despite that though, I came away from the cinema with mixed feelings. For a woman whose achievements could fill a six part series I found it strange that the filmmakers had chosen to concentrate on Baroness Thatcher's present state of health - a condition which, after all, she has no control over. In my view, the focus of the film should have been on those events that she was in control over. Of those, there is no shortage at all. To make a film during her lifetime that shows her suffering from Alzheimers is, in my view, totally disrespectful, ungallant, highly intrusive and a mean-spirited portrayal of the greatest Prime Minister of my lifetime. I don't believe any country other than Britain would portray a living former Prime Minister like this.

I had the great good fortune to hear Mrs Thatcher speak on one occasion. During the run-up to the General Election in 1979 I went to a political meeting (my first and last) as I knew she was in the area and I suspected that she might well make an appearance. Halfway through a turgid speech by the clueless local candidate (a walking cure for insomnia if ever there was one) I was contemplating slashing my wrists when I heard a commotion off to my right. All I could see was the multiple flashing of cameras in the doorway as a jostling crowd entered the hall. In the middle of all the TV lights, flashing cameras, minders & political agents there bobbed a blonde head - Mrs T was in the building! She made her up to the stage amid cheering applause and she took the microphone from the hapless stammering numpty and turned to us.

She spoke for about 10-15 minutes and she was totally electrifying. I've never forgotten the impact of her clarity of thought, the power of her arguments and the sheer force of character and belief with which she expressed them that day. I've often been put in mind of this experience when reading about the Third Reich. Mrs Thatcher was not renowned for her great oratorial skills and yet she was able to inspire me like no other before or since. It goes some way to explain the extraordinary hold that Hitler - an acknowledged master of the spoken word - had on an entire nation.

A couple of years later I had a chance meeting with her and Denis out in the boondocks - she was charm personified. She polarised opinion - not many were neutral - and I think the British media and the political chatterati were and still are merciless in their assessment of her. She was that rarest of political animals - a conviction politician - one who actually believed in what she said and was prepared to fight for her beliefs -  the word compromise wasn't in her vocabulary. Once elected, she was a breath of fresh air after the grey men who preceded her. A great lady and she will be remembered long after all her lily-livered detractors have been forgotten - if that hasn't already happened. This is the Margaret Thatcher I remember - not an old lady unfortunately suffering in her final declining years alone.

21st February 2012. Back to the present. I was browsing the web looking for a particular image of Basque culture (I'll get back to you with this as soon as I've found it) when I came across this photo.. it's of the Port-Vieux of Biarritz and there's nowhere better than "La Casa Juan Pedro" for a quick lunch of sardines à la plancha and sangria than here. Touristy? Yes.. but excellent for all that.

Apparently the Duke and Duchess of Windsor selected Biarritz as their favourite holiday destination in the 40s - Wallis famously instructed her staff to "Chill the champagne, pack the pearls, and tune up the Bugatti" before setting off. We're no different! (ahem!) 

I've often mentioned the quality of the light here. There's a marked difference in its intensity just between travelling the few minutes between Bayonne and Biarritz. When reading about Van Gogh's experience when he moved south from Paris to Provence, it was the brilliance of the light that made such a profound impact on him and his work. Living in England (like living inside a Tupperware container as Bill Bryson once memorably observed), I couldn't understand what he meant until we moved here. For example, when I walked into town yesterday I needed sunglasses. I think the atmosphere at this time of year is clearer than later in the year and the sun isn't as high so the sunlight is unfiltered and it slants straight into your eyes. For some reason, this factor seems magnified at the coast.

Here's something that made me smile!

We can't be too many weeks away now from those first warm days of spring when we can start living outside again - this being one of the undeniable pleasures of life down here. To whet your appetite, take a look at this video that celebrates all that's good about food in the Pays Basque:

Here's a reminder of some of the best known products here in the Pays Basque and Béarn:

Visiting with children? No problem..

If you prefer to escape the hectic life on the coast and seek out the tranquillity of the mountains, there's no shortage. Even at the height of the season, you can have a mountain or a view all to yourself.

If your knees aren't up to a close encounter with the hills, there are so many interesting towns and villages to visit - we first visited this region over twenty years ago and we still haven't seen everything - far from it!
Basque culture.. where to start? I've kept away from this in all my previous posts, mainly because I'm unable to identify with many aspects of it: it's impenetrable to outsiders - even to French. Have a look at this bizarre clip of Basques from across the border. I believe these customs stem from pagan times. (If you google Joaldunak there's more on this)  

Here are some more, on the other side in the Spanish Basque country:

I'm still discovering the odd musical gem from years gone by. Here's "Waterfalls" - a Paul McCartney song that somehow passed me by the first time around.

23rd February 2012. First time down at the river during the week for a few months.. There were enough of us to put a coxless IV together - the difference this time we were rowing, ie, with only 1 oar each.

Looking at the others, they were all competent oarsmen so I knew in advance that we should have a worthwhile sortie. We said we'd warm up during the up-river leg and after the turnaround we'd row intervals. The plan for the return leg was that we'd start with 5 'normale' strokes, followed by 5 'rapide' (in England this would be called full pressure), then 10 & 10, 15 & 15, 20 & 20 , 25 & 25, 30 & 30 (I'm getting tired again just thinking about this!) and then the same thing in reverse back down again all the way to 5 & 5. We just managed to fit all that in before we were at the pontoon again. Phew! It's a long time since I've rowed en pointe but the crew soon gelled.. and the final series of strokes were quite impressive. Another 16km and a very satisfying sortie.

The club's Olympic hopeful Perle Bouge was out on the water looking extremely tidy in her single scull. She'll be representing France at this year's Paralympics. She already won Silver at the World Championships in NZ last year. Not bad for someone who only took up sculling a couple of years ago! If her determination and dedication are anything to go by, she'll take some stopping.

25th February 2012. We were the last boat out on the water today - went off up the river in a quad sculler against a very strong current and did 14km.

If you ever find yourself in Bayonne and your cake low level warning light is indicating steady red, then my cast-iron recommendation is Lionel Raux - just at the side of the indoor market. You won't be disappointed! The cakes are a treat for the eyes - if not the back pocket! Treat yourself to something - anything - from here and you won't be disappointed.