{"id":4109,"date":"2023-05-25T17:57:42","date_gmt":"2023-05-25T17:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=4109"},"modified":"2023-06-15T21:37:49","modified_gmt":"2023-06-15T21:37:49","slug":"3-a-la-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=4109","title":{"rendered":"3. A LA FRANCE"},"content":{"rendered":"

We chose a Sunday to relocate to France, the day when only a few lorries are on the move.\u00a0 The motorway out of Spain is a fairly exciting sort of road.\u00a0 Bendy and hilly, with lots of tunnels and viaducts.\u00a0 But as planned very few heavy vehicles.\u00a0 \u00a0Stopped at Camping Larrouleta, just over the border at Urrugne.\u00a0 This town has memories.\u00a0 On a previous visit I ended up in a dentist’s emporium having a broken tooth extracted.\u00a0 As I recall the dentist said something like, “I can’t mend the tooth, best spend \u20ac50 and have it out!”\u00a0 Well, no dentist for me this time, but we did revisit Camping Col d’Ibardon where said tooth got broken.<\/p>\n

The towns in this region of the coast are mazes of skinny roads with lots of plastic bollards and tight corners with limited parking opportunities.\u00a0 \u00a0And everywhere we went there were people making horrible noises.\u00a0 In Ciboure (opposite St Jean de Luz) the road in the port was being ground up.\u00a0 Dust was flying into all of the restaurants and coffee shops.\u00a0 “Not stopping for coffee here, Barry!”\u00a0 We walked almost to the Fort de Socoa which guards the entrance of the Bay of St Jean de Luz…<\/span><\/p>\n

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… we watched the local sailing club launch 14 catamarans for a sailing lesson beside the port area and then beat a hasty retreat<\/span><\/p>\n

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The approach road to St J de L was being similarly dismembered.\u00a0 Single track road and one way system. Chaos on the first roundabout where an articulated lorry had got stuck in the too-narrow lanes\u00a0 \u00a0Traffic was backed up for miles coming from the north!\u00a0 \u00a0No easy parking to be found.\u00a0 So on to Gu\u00e9thary.\u00a0 Good parking by the beach, but the coastal path was under repair.\u00a0 Bidart next.\u00a0 Parked just as a hedge cutting operation started with four workers with trimmers, all screaming like demented hornets (fr\u00e9lons d\u00e9ments)!\u00a0 We arrived at the peaceful square in Bidart …<\/span><\/p>\n

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… just as the clock started striking 12 noon!\u00a0 It’s just not our day, although we did have a delicious lunch formula in the patisserie opposite the square.<\/span><\/p>\n

We appear to have left Spain just in time!\u00a0 This was reported in yesterday’s paper…<\/p>\n

Spain’s government has unveiled an app for women to audit their husband\u2019s housework and ensure chores are being shared equally.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The purpose of the software, being launched this summer, is for couples and families to achieve a \u201cmore effective distribution\u201d of <\/em><\/strong>housework.<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

I mean, come on, I thought Spanish men were SUPPOSED to sit playing dominoes at the local cafe\/bar all day… every day.\u00a0 Or is that French men?\u00a0 Or both perhaps!<\/p>\n

Anyway, the coastal region is a bit busy for us.\u00a0 The roads are busy, the towns are full of parked cars but nothing much seemed to be open.\u00a0 The towns have a real “out-of-season” feel about them.<\/p>\n

Afterwards we made a delightful tour of the skinny and bendy (but much more peaceful) roads in the country just to the north of the Pyrenees, (taking in the villages of Arbonne, Arcangues, St P\u00e9e sur Nivelle, Sare and Ascain).\u00a0 Now, it’s time to move on…<\/p>\n

Let’s go to Dax!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We chose a Sunday to relocate to France, the day when only a few lorries are on the move.\u00a0 The motorway out of Spain is a fairly exciting sort of road.\u00a0 Bendy and hilly, with lots of tunnels and viaducts.\u00a0… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spain-and-france","category-travels-in-2023"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4109"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4251,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4109\/revisions\/4251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}