For the first time in a week, we have a great internet connection. Actually, the last two days we didn’t have any internet connection, so I had to do the blog on my phone….not an easy task.
We left our beautiful country cottage about 9am and headed southwest to Bayonne, on the Bay of Biscayne. Originally, we planned to go to San Sebastian Donastia in Spain for 3 nights but decided to stay here instead and do Spain as a day trip tomorrow as it’s less than an hour away.
Our first stop in Bayonne was the L’Atelier de Chocolat, the chocolate museum. It’s also a small chocolate factory so as we read plaques about how chocolate is made, we watched them actually making it.
The first step of the process is to get harvest the cocoa beans, which they get from the tropics of central and south America. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a cocoa bean before, so I was surprised at how big the bean is.
Here’s a very short video of a worker adding the eyes to a chocolate face. There were 3 people making the face; this was the last step.
And here’s the final product.
Then we headed into the city center, found a place to park (after making a wrong turn into a bus only lane…oops) and headed to the Cathedral of Saint Mary of Bayonne built from the 13th – 16th centuries.
It isn’t particularly large, and the outside doesn’t have the intricate carvings of some of the other cathedrals we’ve visited. But the inside is quite different from others, with painted panels instead of carvings. Even parts of the ceiling were painted. Very beautiful.
One cool thing about this cathedral is that it’s on the pilgrimage route from Lourdes to Santigo de Compostelo in Spain, which Peter and I visited in 2018. We’ll visit Lourdes this weekend so we will have seen the beginning, the end and a stop along the way of this famous pilgrimage route.
Just outside the Cathedral was our lunch spot, a creperie. We’ve been in France for 3 1/2 weeks and I’ve only had one galette (savory crepe) so was very excited that this restaurant had them. It was so good; even Peter liked it.
After lunch we walked about 15 minutes to the Basque Museum. When I think of Basque, I think of Spain, so I was surprised to find a Basque Museum here. Well, it turns out that there is a French Basque Region and Bayonne is right in the middle of it. Who knew??
The exhibit contains artifacts from ancient times (first human remains found in the area are from 150,000 years ago) as well as 19th century artifacts.
There was also an art exhibit by a local painter made good, Leon Bonnat. The temporary exhibit was being shown in honor of the 100th anniversary of his death.
After the museum it was time to check into our Airbnb flat. I’m not wild about the neighborhood and we had to walk down about 10 stairs to get to our “garden apartment”, but it’s a nice place and the internet is GREAT!!! So, who needs more. Since we had a big lunch, we’ll eat light tonight. I bought a baguette this afternoon, so we’ll probably have sandwiches. Depending on weather tomorrow we’ll either head to the beaches in Spain or maybe take a drive through the Pyrenees Mountains which start just outside of town. We’ll let you know how it goes.
Night everyone and thanks for following our adventures.
Chocolate……my favorite food group. Having lived a few miles from Hershey, PA, I was educated in the making of chocolate. I find it amazing that someone opened that up, found those beans, and figured out how to make chocolate!
Stained glass……Another favorite of mine…..yes, the lampshade is a little challenging, but I think you would be up to that challenge.
We resisted the temptation to spend $33 on a small box of chocolate so we didn’t get anything to take with us but the museum was very interesting. I’ve been to the chocolate museum in Hershey about 10 years ago; it was fascinating.
As for the glass shade, it’s beautiful but I’m not sure what I’d do with it. I’m getting all kinds of ideas. In Bordeaux there was a store that made stained glass inserts for doors, and I saw a gorgeous one. It’s not southwestern, though, so the HOA would probably not approve it. And, of course, every time I walk into a church, I see windows I want to do. Oh, to have talent!