{"id":19,"date":"2018-10-01T20:08:19","date_gmt":"2018-10-01T19:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/?p=19"},"modified":"2021-06-17T21:48:28","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T20:48:28","slug":"francais-chaud-hot-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/?p=19","title":{"rendered":"Francais Chaud, Hot France!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know that England is having a heatwave, well, so are we in France!! Finally the weather has improved, not without the odd evening thunderstorm, but the temperature is up and the sun and blue skies are a more common theme these days.<\/p>\n

France has struck us as being very English, the rolling countryside resembles the South Downs, English language and accents are common in towns and supermarket queues, lots of British people live and holiday here, the residential gardens are kept full of roses, hydrangeas and lavender, and tea is drunk here more than coffee! They have bric-a-brac markets and supermarkets are full of British products like marmalade, Tetley tea and familiar cereals. The language is easier for me than David, having sat O Level French at school some of it occasionally comes back from a tiny corner of my brain. The only difference is that British people are friendly and willing to provide a service, unlike the French!<\/p>\n

However, before we left the coast for Gers, we visited a few local places nearby.<\/p>\n

Urrugny<\/h3>\n

We stayed at this campsite just outside St Jean de Luz, below Biarritz, for 2 weeks. We explored the area, drove back 10kms over the border into Spain and topped up with cheaper fuel and fridge contents!<\/p>\n

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Sunset over the lake at Larrouleta campsite.<\/p><\/div>\n

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David considering the lake\u2026.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The fabulous heated pool.<\/p><\/div>\n

The local church was an eye opener, traditional design outside, inside it was almost theatrical in design with a heavily decorated ceiling, three wooden balconies around the edges and a spectacular art deco organ added in 2000.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"We visited a local chateau, where the latest generation of the family who built it still live in attached accommodation but the main house is now used as a hotel, or a museum, although the house is used for family functions. Most of the walls were decorated with old tapestries and paintings of the head of the families that had lived there. The gardens were full of herb beds as well as beautiful pink hydrangeas and roses and a perfectly manicured lawn!<\/p>\n

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The local privately owned Chateau.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The family dining table, complete with crystal glasses and one of 15 magnificent wall tapestries.<\/p><\/div>\n

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This is an original water fountain, pumped up from a well, into a lobby off the dining room.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The lounge, with Louis Vth chairs, old Piano, family portraits and another tapestry.<\/p><\/div>\n

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A portrait of the current owner\u2019s great grandfather hangs above the fireplace. The wording engraved into the fireplace reads \u201cWe Gather, We Warm, We Cheer\u201d.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The Trophy Room is full of local deer and antique furniture.<\/p><\/div>\n

We visited another Chateau that was built in 1860 by a scientist with an interest in astronomy; he built himself a gothic style triangular shaped property which contained an observatory tower in one corner and a private chapel in another. As the building was perched on a hill there was no light pollution and just open skies. The day we visited was French only tours, so no point in paying out money to listen to something we did not understand!<\/p>\n

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Bayonne<\/h3>\n

This lovely riverside town was deserted on a Saturday when we visited, later in the day we realised why \u2013 everybody was in the next town Biarritz, at the beach! The riverside architecture was stunning, tall, wooden houses showed there was wealth in the area from a long time ago, and the River Nive which divided the town gave the old and new a separate feel; the old town was full of stone properties dominated by the Church; the new part was full of modern tasteful blocks of glass and metal apartments surrounded by greenery and cycle paths. On the bank of the river, we came across a beautiful old carousel, with some unusual characters as seats!<\/p>\n

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Biarritz<\/h3>\n

We revisited Biarritz, having been there September 2017, and found the beaches heaving with sun worshipers, surfers and swimmers. We sat in the same seafront bar as we did last year and had a drink, last year breakfast with fruit juice and coffee and pastries, this year a long cold drink!<\/p>\n

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San Sebastien, Spain<\/h3>\n

We also revisited San Sebastien just over the border into Spain, We had been there several times before but had not explored the tourist area around the old cathedral and \u201cold town\u201d. This time we meandered through the old streets admiring the cathedral, the architecture and of course, we had to stop for tapas lunch!!<\/p>\n

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Top, l to r: minced raw beef and mayo (David said it was awful!!); sardines and tomatoes; battered chicken and veg balls. Below: Mini croissant with ham; baguette with bacon and tomato; chorizo sausage in pastry; potato tortilla.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know that England is having a heatwave, well, so are we in France!! Finally the weather has improved, not without the odd evening thunderstorm, but the temperature is up and the sun and blue skies are a more common theme these days. France has struck us as being very English, the rolling countryside resembles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[126,5,4,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-france","category-general","category-history","category-travel","post-preview"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Header.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52,"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19\/revisions\/52"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}