Ken's 2nd ancestral tour now in France -
Day Seven Exploring Larbord

La Bastide Clairence

Saturday 15th May 2004 Martin supplied a copious breakfast. Avis had this yen to see Biarritz again but, as by the time we had finished chatting, it was still ony 11:30, I set off to the river at Urt by a different, single track road & we went South-West to explore first, the old County of Larbord, where the Vicomte who died in 1062 was called Fortun, so I had examined him for possible ancestry before getting Patrick's vol. 2 notes. He was descended from Sancho Garces, the "Optimo Imperator". The Bastide Clairence is absolutely charming.

We carried on to Hasparren & Cambo on the way to St. Jean de Luz, which we avoided & took the main road round Hendaye back into Spain at Irun & turned off to Fuenterrabia/Hondarribia, which where Richard Perkin addressed his letter to Sir Bernard de la Forssa. The old part is very pretty & ther was a demo. by, I assumed, ETA asking for the release of politcal prisoners & a huge sheet of passport-sized photos of them. To check, I asked an older man in French & he confirmed it, so I told him, "Nous sommes dans Euskadi pour mon ancestre etait Basque". I should had said Euskadunuk but he appreciated the gesture.

Richard, Duke of York's letter to Sir Bernard sent to Fuenterrabia

The pretty part of Fuenterrabia

None of the eateries looked particularly appetising, so we went back to France & ate on Hendaye Plage at the Miramar: more elaborate salad, beer & wine & coffee for E28.20. We stuck to the Coast Road as far as Biarritz, exploring interesting St. Jean de Luz this time after Ciboure opposite.

Ciboure

St. Jean de Luz

We parked 50m from where we did last year in Biarritz but this time, it was hot & not windy. After an explore of both littoral & town, I had the usual misery of getting out of the Biarritz-Bayonne complex, which is still plagued with road works & bad signage (no road numbers on the signs) until we found the Adour River & drove delightfully along its right bank to Urt again & so to Martin's chateau, where we had tea.