Today we took the bus to St Jean de Luz, a port town south of Bayonne. St Jean de Luz today is a very popular holiday venue because of its beautiful beach and very charming old world township. In the past it was the home of a whaling fleet that used to fish as far away as Greenland, and also to the Corsairs, who were privateers. They had received a ‘lettre de cours’, from the French king; a document which gave them royal permission to run down and pillage merchant ships if they belonged to enemies of the crown. That, in this case, usually meant Spanish ships. The corsairs became very rich very quickly, and many large and ostentatious houses with family names on them attest to that today. Not everyone was so well off, or could live in places far enough from the shore to be safe from the regular inundations, havoc and destruction caused by tempests. Half, and sometimes more, of the dwellings were regularly being destroyed. The Cagots, a people despised and feared because of their supposed link to leprosy, would live in the ruins along the beach. Eventually barrages were built, extending out from each side of the bay, to partially enclose the harbour entry and finally Napoleon III called for the building of a massive sea wall along the shore as well. After that the buildings, and people, were safe.
When we arrived, we collected a walking tour map from the tourist office and set off around the very busy port.
A small crowd had gathered to watch the deftness of a boy’s hands as they flew in and out, mending a fishing net. A memorial to members of the Resistance during WWII, when Germany was occupying France, was a poignant reminder of what it must have been like while the Vichy Government of France was cooperating with the occupying forces. The House of the Infanta was closed for the morning, but was an impressive building whose claim to fame is that Marie Therese D’Autriche, who married Louis XIV, stayed there for four months prior to her marriage. Residents of that house formerly had to step out of a door from the first floor onto a high wooden pathway erected to cope with the regular inundations from the Atlantic Ocean. We visited later and saw the two rooms on display, which were ornate and worthy of an Infanta. The name, Infanta, brings up visions of a little girl or at best a twelve year old, but Marie Therese was actually 22 at the time of her marriage. The second room was very ornate, with folk art style paintings on all the ceiling beams and around the fireplace.One of twin light houses stood at the entrance to the port, where we climbed steps up onto the sea wall. A net surrounded the whole bay and one section had been cordoned off for either swimming lessons or as a safer area for the children’s holiday camp that was in full swing. A whole playground had been erected on the sand, as well as trampolines and table tennis tables. The rest of the beach was also crowded, until the weather turned and then everyone poured down the steps into the town and flooded the streets in the way that the waves had done once. The first row of houses, now most desirable residences, all had bridges running from them to the top of the sea wall, for handy access to the beach.
The Cagots were allowed to fish and the women sorted and cleaned sardines for sale and made the tour of the town with baskets of fish on their heads. It seems strange that people regarded as unclean would be allowed the trades of butcher and fisherman, but perhaps people thought that the cooking process would protect them from disease. Later the sardines and tuna that provided them with a living were taken over by mainstream fishermen when the France lost its northern whaling fields.Everywhere we tried to visit was closed for the two hour lunch break, so eventually we gave up and had our picnic and did some people watching. The almond macaroon was invented by a Mr Adam of St Jean de Luz in 1660, to coincide with the royal marriage, and is still made here from the recipe that has been passed down in the family. We had already tried one in Bayonne, courtesy of Catherine, and had found them to be quite tasty but a little squishier than the coconut macaroons we are used to. Patronage by the royals and through them, the court, meant instant success for the macaroon. The Infanta was a bit of a chocolate addict as well, at a time when chocolate was considered to be of use in a medicinal capacity and not a treat to be nibbled on. No doubt she conveniently developed a chronic ailment for which the only treatment was chocolate, which explains the personal chocolate making equipment that she left to posterity.
When we finally entered the church of St Jean the Baptist, we had already admired the bricked in wall which was once the door used for the wedding of Louis IV and the Infanta. The front of the church is the most amazing gilt wall of statues and decorations, certainly fitting for any royal wedding. The church is unusual because it has a barrel vaulted ceiling, and galleries all around the walls. At the time of the wedding, renovations were underway and I wondered if the galleries were original or had been added to accommodate the enormous crowd that would have attended. A seating protocol had been drawn up for the wedding guests but the church was incredibly crowded and squabbling and bickering broke out.
A large model ship hung down from the ceiling in recognition of the parish’s connection to the sea, swings on its single rope and provides weather information by the direction it points.
The original model had been offered by a ship owning resident, who brought it back from New Foundland, but that was replaced by the current one, offered by the Empress Eugenie, to thank God for saving a ship in peril in the bay. Paintings by Pierre Baldi, the artist whose exhibition we had seen at Biarritz, were modern additions which brought bright colour into the body of the church.Artists, who had set up their stands of paintings and drawings for sale in the Place Louis XIV earlier in the day, were rapidly packing up as the first drizzle started to become serious.
We were luckily escaping the rain as we waited for our tour of the Louis XIV house, named after the brief stay of Louis and his bride after their marriage in May 1660. The house was built in 1643 and has been in the same family ever since. It was an interesting conglomerate of original fittings and decorations and more modern renovations to meet the needs of the family at each era. We moved from room to room, hearing the origins of the furniture, the names of the people in the family portraits and the story of how the mayor, enamoured of one of the girls in the family, had made advances and been rebuffed. At that stage this was the only house in the area and had a magnificent view of the port from all its windows. The mayor immediately ordered that a town hall be built next door with only a narrow alley running between, so that the side windows would lose their view. Later that alley was to be the site of the local Guillotine and people would try to be invited to look out of the remaining windows on that side to get a good view of the spectacle. The rooms were very ornate, with the royal bedroom and some others having wax models in them. The royal bed was very short, but it was the fashion to sleep in a nearly sitting up position because it was believed that if you lay down you could be smothered by the sheets. I particularly liked the way the family had arranged photos of current and recent family members in frames on the royal chest of drawers.A scurry through the rain took us back to the bus stop and our return to Bayonne. During the evening we watched ‘Sur Le Bout Des Doigts’, a French film that starred Anne-Sophie Letour, the daughter of our landlady. Sophie is a brilliant pianist and over the two weeks we had been listening to her preparing for a concert while she is on her university holidays. At sixteen she had been selected to play the part of the daughter of a mother who is obsessed with her and who sees her as the way to fulfil her own dreams of being a concert pianist. It is a sad and very moving film, with a lot of psychological problems for the mother and plenty to think about afterwards. A little difficult for Keith to follow in French; I had the advantage of having read the synopsis and the interviews with the actors and director that Catherine had leant me, and could understand most of what was being said. This was the perfect antidote to our previous film experience and we felt honoured to be watching it in Sophie’s home.
Unusual chimney pots in St Jean de Luz 
St Jean style baguettes
Christie unsuccessfully scours the St Jean street stall for a new skirt.
Bronze statue of Louis XIV
Street scene in St Jean de Luz
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