On Tuesday, we drove to Pau, which is where Henry of Navarre, who would become Henry IV of France, was born. We drove back roads and lemme tell you what... The French do not give a shit about your knowing that there are turns ahead for which you need to slow down. They want you to go 50 or 30 kph through towns, but boy howdy, when you are on open road and the limit is 80 or 90 kph, you'd better be paying attention. The Pyrenees road, like all other mountain road, contain switchbacks, precipitous cliffs, small-to-no shoulders, and not a lot of room for two cars at a time. A LOT of the curves had no warning - no signs, but "slow your ass down" notices, no pictures of people lying dead on the side of the road. Those who know me know that I like to drive fast. I LOVE to drive fast. I've never had a wreck that was my fault. However, I didn't even approach the speed limit on any of the curves. They were way too tricky.
Dan made a video - and this was an easy stretch. We had gone through most of the scarier ones.
This guy was leading donkeys (mules? I dunno) on the road to Espelette. We saw him later in town.
Our first stop on the way to Pau was Espelette, home of the Espelette pepper. It is grown only in this region and is fiercely regulated. No Monsanto GMO bs here.
The growers do everything by hand except the actual planting, which is done by machine - but with a human feeding one plant at a time into the machine. It's impressive. They plant in May, harvest in August-October, dry until late winter, and then make their powder that goes into everything from jelly to beer to chocolate. It's not very high on the Scoville scale, but it gives your mouth a lovely warmth.
One of the many fields of peppers
Dan will no doubt have many more photos.
Yes, I do.
Our guide with Vicki in front of the oven used to dry the peppers.
Main St in Espelette
After a lunch of bread and cheese, sardine spread (for Dan, obvi), we left this cute little town where everything is painted the color of peppers (although I couldn't help thinking about the walls of the White House from 2017-2021), we headed toward Pau. We had a great dinner, had a nice walk, saw the lovely Pyrenees at sunset.
Such a cool label!
Mussels
My dish was some kind of seafood combination wrapped in pastry. Vicki’s was a paella.
Vicki’s dessert - an apple tart.
My dessert - a strawberry mint soup
When we got back to the hotel, Dan was bushed... I was a little tired but I think that the waiter mistook my order for coffee after dinner to mean regular coffee - which I never drink. So I was still up at 2:30 AM when my tummy started rumbling in that unhappy way that we all know... and so the rest of my night was not restful. Dan, it turns out, couldn't sleep either and, on top of that, started feeling a tightness in his chest.
So. Today is Wednesday. We are currently both feeling like shit (pardon the expression), having driven to our next destination without seeing anything in Pau that we wanted to see. Dan is in bed with chills, and I am stationed not far from our bathroom. Fun is being had. 🙄
One quick thing: We had a stop in Tarbes, which is both where Marshal Foch was born and where the French Resistance worked during WWII. In fact, the town was awarded the Croix de Guerre for its support of the French Resistance. One of the projects of the Resistance was to get Allied personnel, Jewish people, and others who were hunted by the Nazis over the Pyrenees to [relative] safety in Spain. As we were driving from Tarbes to Pau, we saw this monument:
The stone says:
Here in CAPVERN
June 14, 1944
A major commitment
taken place
between company 3201, snipers, French supporters, Maquis of Nistos Esparros, and Spanish Guerrilleros
and a German SS column
Many enemies
were killed and wounded
during this fight
The young patriot Max Irenee Aubert was mortally wounded
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