23. Spring - Fêtes de Bayonne 2008

I think we'd been in the house for 2 months and we had just about got ourselves straight when our first visitors arrived.. By the end of September 2008, five months later, we'd had 21 visitors - and with Madame's health problems, this is something we won't be repeating - except for very special cases. She only knows one way to entertain and that is to push le bateau out.. She is a truly wonderful cook but for days after each set of visitors had departed, she would be absolutely worn out.. It was too much for her. So as much as we’d like to invite friends down here, I think for Madame’s sake, we’ll have to say come down by all means but we won’t be able to put you up. Which is a great pity but there we are.

We'd heard a lot about the famous Fêtes de Bayonne from various people.. This is the annual fiesta that takes over the town for 5 days & nights every year at the end of July/beginning of August. Last year, it was calculated that 1.3 million people came and this year was no different. Normally, Bayonne has a population of around 40,000 so you can imagine with well over a million extra visitors that the town was well & truly swamped. Many visitors come from the hinterland of the Basque region itself as the Fêtes are a celebration of their Basque identity but they also come from further afield. If parking can be problematic at normal times, then during the Fêtes, it's a complete nightmare. In our avenue, people normally park on one side only and there’s usually always a space free.. However, during the Fêtes, cars were 'creatively' parked on both sides up on the pavement as only the French (and the Neapolitans) can do. This meant that we couldn't go out in the car because if we did, we'd have two chances of finding a space upon our return: fat chance and no chance. It would be no use us putting the car in our garage as some eejit could always be relied on to block the access to it.

 

The Fêtes started off at 10pm in the main square in front of the Town Hall.. Fortunately we’d arrived there early and we’d found a shop doorway to stand in (which kept us out of the crush). After a few words from the Mayor there was the mother of all firework displays – made up largely of explosive detonations that painfully rattled your chest.. Everyone was in white and red - white trousers, white shirts with a red bandana, and a red sash round the waist. Don’t ask why – it’s just how they do it here. Everyone – but everyone – was dressed the same – they all joined together in a display of pride in their separateness, their Basque identity, their distinctive Basque culture, their Basque music, their Basque dancing and their unique Basque language. Language specialists have no idea where or what the origins of the Basque language are – it’s like no other language in Europe or anywhere else. Here’s an example so you can see how different it is: Zuek egunkariak erosten dizkidazue. This means: “you buy the newspapers for me”. Knowledge of any other European language won't help in decoding this.

The Fêtes really were a spectacle.. Despite the bars being allowed to serve alcohol till 3am and stay open till 5am.. we didn’t see many drunks.. Many slept in their cars.. and cars were parked everywhere.. The town was full of little bars that people set up, each street seemed to have their own band and it was complete bedlam! The narrow streets were full of Basque marching bands beating out old rhythms with their drums, accompanied by the reedy shrieking of an instrument that sounds like a duck call..

One evening our local butcher (supposedly the best butcher in Bayonne) at the bottom of our avenue organized a dinner in the street.. We had to sign up and pay in advance then just turn up on the night. They’d put tables out in the middle of the road to seat about 100 of us.. (only in France!) The price included the menu, the wine and there was music provided by a small band.. It was supposed to start at 9.30pm but of course it didn’t start until 10pm.. The main course was boned leg of lamb – which was delicieux! Fortunately they came round again with seconds! I think we left about 1am..

They had a pop concert one night at the bull ring (which is about 200 yards away) – which was extremely loud.. They'd spent all afternoon doing imaginative sound checks ("Un, deux.. un, deux..") but as the concert finished about midnight it wasn’t too bad.

We’ve been continuing to tackle all the outstanding jobs – some big, some small – one by one. As the dining room shutters were a bit rotten at the top, we had to have some new ones made by Eric. He’s very, very good and not expensive. He’s got the Basque work ethic too..

He appeared one afternoon at about 1.30 with a stack of planks and by 6.30pm he’d finished. He’d taken all the metal fittings off the old shutters and re-used them where he could. Next day, I had the ladder out and I put on 2 coats of the Basque red that we’re supposed to use. All the woodwork of the houses in the Basque country is painted either blood red, dark blue or dark green. Now and again you’ll see a brown one.

So you can see that life here is all one mad round of fun, washing wine stains out the curtains, putting clean straw down, trips to the bottle bank and re-seeding the lawns after the starlings have been at it – AGAIN!

And now I'm just off to buy the newspapers in Basque.. or maybe not.

4. Bayonne

I should have mentioned at the outset that we did drag ourselves around countless estate agents and went through the long-winded process of explaining our situation and what we wanted with each and every one. Needless to say, we didn't receive a single call back or a referral from any of them. However, in fairness to the estate agents (and it's not often you read that is it?), it's a sellers market and there are more buyers than properties available so it's the buyer who must do the work.

What were we looking for? We wanted to live on or near the coast in a town because, when confronted with a bijou house down a lane deep in the countryside, Madame would inevitably ask “Yes, but where do you buy your baguette..?” Neither of us wanted to live somewhere where we’d need the car each time we wanted a biro, for example. Plus - ever practical - she convinced me that we needed to live somewhere with a good hospital. It sounds pessimistic but we are both in our 60s.. Say no more.

I made a list of all the features that we wanted: a small town house orientated east/west (for the sun); with a good-sized sitting room with a fireplace and a walk-through to a dining room; a breakfast kitchen; all rooms to have high ceilings with either parquet or wooden floors; 2/3 bedrooms; a utility room; a cellar; a terrace; a garden front & back and a garage. In an ideal world, we wanted the house to have belonged to an old person and thus likely to be in need of redecoration from top to bottom including renovating the kitchen and bathroom (to discourage other buyers). Finally, we wanted the house to be on a quiet road within 10 minutes walk of the centre including all the shops. No problem with that list, surely? (dreamer!)

Bayonne looking west down the Adour

After a week of pounding pavements in the warm September sunshine in what turned out to be a fruitless search in St Jean and Biarritz, we decided to open up our search to the north to include Bayonne, a short 10 minute drive from Biarritz.

Narrow streets of Bayonne

Bayonne, an historic town of some 44,000 inhabitants, is situated about 5km inland at the confluence of the Rivers Adour and the Nive. In fact, it forms part of what is known locally as the Agglomeration Côte Basque-Adour (ACBA agglomeration) - it used to be known as the BAB. Bayonne has been heavily shaped by its past because it lies behind extensive city walls, massive stone ramparts and fortifications, as it was fortified on an heroic scale in the 16th century by Vauban, France’s military fortification genius.

Vauban (1633-1707)

In former times, therefore, there was no possibility for town planners and builders to spread out and so the only direction new building could expand was upwards - and the limit, imposed by Vauban's fortifications on the outward expansion of the old town, is clearly visible below:

Bayonne

The streets of the old town are correspondingly narrow with 4-5 storied buildings being the norm. This has the advantage that the streets remain cool and in shadow, even on the hottest of days. This lends a very Spanish feel to it. Modern Bayonne, however, has spread out beyond the original city walls and ramparts and now there’s no discernible break between Biarritz, Anglet or Bayonne.

Bayonne Old Town Centre

Bayonne (centre left) and the Pyrenees

Prices here reflect the fact that it's not on the coast and so the price/sq m is correspondingly lower. It works out at about half that of St Jean de Luz. This was more our territory!

During the first week of August, Bayonne is “en fête”. Sheer madness reigns as well over 1m people (yes, a million) descend on the town for five days and five nights of prodigious eating, drinking, music, drums, folklore, funfairs, mass fandango dancing in the streets, fireworks and more. The inventiveness and parking skills of Basque drivers is stretched to the limit as conventional parking spaces are quickly taken, never to be relinquished for the 5 days. To take part in the Fête, you must be dressed all in white with a red scarf or a red beret. The town also has an active bull-ring; however, this is one facility that we definitely won't be taking advantage of.

Les Arènes (Bull ring)

But I’m getting ahead of myself here..