As my weather app had predicted, and despite being told by natives that the weather forecasts aren’t always right on the Basque Coast, Saturday was a completely rainy day. So rainy and windy that I wondered if it was some remnant or beginning of one of the hurricanes that hit or are due to strike the U.S. Occassionally it would clear up for about 30 minutes or so, and the sky actually show some blue, but for the most part it was a crazy, rainy, windy day.
I did venture out for a little walk on the low tide beach, but after about 15 minutes of clear, it poured rain again, so I spend the rest of the day in my hotel room, or in the hotel restaurant, watching either Netflix or the weather outside. I should note that for the most part my 6 weeks in France have provided pretty decent weather — some chill and rain in the north, but once I headed south it was pretty glorious. So, having one day as a washout was almost a relief. No churches to visit, no abbayes to tour, no Roman ruins to walk through. And also not much to write about!
On Sunday, I headed to the airport in Paris. There were two trains to take — from Bayone (a station I had been in 3 years ago, and where I met my first Camino companions — Keith and Lynn and Freddie), to Bordeaux and then a second TGV to CDG airport. The window seat I had reserved on the upper level on the second train gave me some of the views of the countryside that I had driven through earlier in August. Past the Dordogne and the Loire Valley, lots of farm land and some grapes. Nothing as spectacular as my drive from Carcassone to Biarritz where I was driving parallel to the striking Pyrenees on my left. I was on an autoroute, so was unable to stop to take a photo, but I will have the visual memory of tall, and some spikey peaks, gray outlines in the distant haze. And to think I walked over that mountain range on the first day of the Camino!
I was unable to make a train to plane connection work in a single day, so spent the night at an airport hotel. Of course the hotel didn’t offer much in the way of entertainment or dining, but Netflix and some down time was really okay. And as I have begun to contemplate my return to the U.S. and a resumption of an ordinary life, it was nice to not be rushing around for a day or two.
So that was the weekend.
