Today we travelled along the coast, a coast that is squeezed between the sea and mountains, and in the corridor fits busy superhighways, main roads and railways, plus beaches and resorts, camping grounds, residences, factories and ports, cities and towns. After our harrowing trip from Pamplona to San Sebastian, the last few days of riding have been a pleasure, and would recommend! A hazy start to the hot day that has been forecast (36C in Ciboure today) - but a lovely breakfast overlooking ‘our’ pool and St Jean-de-Luz was a good way to ease into it. The major towns that we passed through today: Ciboure, St Jean-de-Luz, Guethary, Bidart, Biarritz, Anglet and our destination of Bayonne. Goodness knows how many campgrounds we passed, or golf courses! Our EuroVelo 1 cycleway more or less threaded it way through the urban areas, and kept to the coastline, which gave a lovely view of the beaches, but at the expense of steep (though short) climb to the next headland and a steep descent to the other side. The sun didn’t come out until about 1000 (as forecast) - however, as we weren't travelling so far today, we made an effort to see some of these towns and to check out the major features in the tourist brochures. Saint-Jean-de-Luz bay is a natural harbour in the south-east of the Bay of Biscay. It is the only sheltered bay between Arcachon and Spain. From the middle of the 12th century until the middle of the 15th century Saint Jean de Luz together with the whole region and indeed the whole Aquitaine belonged to the English crown. The English domination terminated here towards the end of the Hundred Years Wars in 1451 when the French armies captured Bordeaux and Bayonne regions. In 1686 Marshal Vauban visited Saint Jean de Luz and decided to partially close the bay with two sea walls. He also took the decision to reinforce Fort Socoa. Due to limited finances only the reinforcement of Socoa was undertaken. The sea wall project was retaken in 1854 when Emperor Napoleon III visited the city and was besieged by the complaints from the local population who had to endure the sea entering the city during each storm. The works started 1864 and finished 12 years later in 1876. Flooding or not, staring from the end of the 18th century the fashion of sea bathing makes its appearance in Saint Jean de Luz. In 1843 the Municipal Council establishes a “Sea Bathing Society” that proposes 60 cabins, and music and reading spaces. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th Saint Jean de Luz becomes, along with Biarritz, the sea resort of choice for the European aristocracy. We checked out the Louis XIV place and the cathedral. On June 9, 1660 King Louis XIV married Infanta Marie-Therese of Austria, the oldest daughter of King Philip IV of Spain (the Habsburg and Spanish crowns being united since Charles V inherited from his parents both thrones!). Saint-Jean-de-Luz was chosen for the religious marriage celebration because of its Franco-Spanish border location and because of its proximity to the Pheasant Island (now belonging to Hendaye town) where the peace treaty called "Treaty of the Pyrenees" was signed between France and Spain on the 7th of November 1559. The marriage was celebrated in the Saint Jean the Baptist church that still stands in the center of the town (the door the royal couple entered the church was afterwards blocked so nobody else could ever use it!). There are great beaches along this part of the coast, of course Biarritz being famous for surfing. Today, though, the conditions were flat calm. A feature of Biarritz is the Rocher de la Vierge, a statue erected on a small promontory that gives great views of the coast, and is an icon of the town. Penny did go for a dip of the toes into the Atlantic today. The built environment contains some lovely buildings, and also some of the worst of French resort chic. We are staying in the old city centre of Bayonne, which came under the domination of the English in 1152 through the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine: it became militarily and, above all, commercially important thanks to maritime trade. In 1451 the city was taken by the Crown of France after the Hundred Years' War. The loss of trade with the English and the silting up of the river as well as the movement of the city towards the north weakened it. The city developed anyway thanks to the arrival of a Jewish population fleeing the Spanish expulsions dictated by the Alhambra Decree. From this community Bayonne gained its reputation for chocolate. The course of the Adour was changed in 1578 and the river returned to its former mouth, returning business lost to Bayonne for over a hundred years. In the 17th century the city was fortified by Vauban. In 1814 Bayonne and its surroundings were the scene of fighting between the Napoleonic troops and the Spanish-Anglo-Portuguese coalition led by the Duke of Wellington: the city then underwent its final siege. In 1951 the Lacq gas field was discovered whose extracted sulphur and associated oil are shipped from the port of Bayonne. Quite a lovely city, though the majority of visitors to this corner of France come for the sun and beaches at the nearby coast.