St Jean Pieds de Port

Today we decided to have a proper look around St Jean Pieds De Port. It has medieval walls, built by (I think) Sancho the Strong. Or maybe Sancho the Great. I get a bit confused. I thought they were the same person for a while.

However, Louis XIV sent Vauban to fortify the place during the wars of the Spanish Succession. There are “modern” fortifications, built with artillery in mind, and a large citadel, which was a barracks. This was why it made a good point for Soult to regroup the army after the disaster of Vitoria. Here, and Bayonne, had defences, barracks and military supplies.

 You can walk round the medieval walls and out along the river, so we had a lovely morning. You can’t go into the citadel, which is a school. An approved one, judging by appearances. Along the river there were hundreds of chaffinches, the din was amazing, and we saw dippers.  There were lots of trout in the river, too.

Then after lunch we decided to drive up the Col D’Ispeguy. It’s just spectacularly beautiful. There are foxgloves, coltsfoot, and wild herbs, and we saw a lot of griffin vultures. I might have seen a raven, but I couldn’t swear to it. I wish we were up to some walking, there are loads of paths which seem to be well way marked.

Looking back down the pass towards St Jean Pied de Port

When we were looking at the vultures, a French lady came and asked if me if I knew where the black pigs were. Half my mind was thinking that my French had let me down again, and I’d got it wrong, and the other half was running on Captain Pugwash, for reasons that I’m sure anyone of my age will understand, and I can’t begin to explain to anyone else. Luckily Phil rescued me. I hadn’t misheard. There are wild black pigs, not boars, and they make famous ham. But we didn’t see any. We did see pottoks, often with rather cute foals, and very pretty goats, and sheep, and off white cows, also quite pretty as cows go.

Pottok with foal

Griffin Vulture - didn't Phil and the fancy camera do well!

From the col, you can see into the valleys where the battle of Maya was fought. It must have been incredibly difficult to control large bodies of men, and to know what was going on, in such broken and difficult terrain.

It’s weird, every village has a fronton, for playing pelota, and the tourist boards make a big boast of it, but we’ve never once seen anyone actually playing. Perhaps it isn’t the season.