Recently we caught the train from Saint-Jean-de-Luz to Bordeaux. It goes through Bayonne, the ninth largest port in France.
In the 15th century, when Ferdinand and Isabella expelled everyone who wasn't white and Christian from Spain the city received many Jewish refugees. One of the very good things they brought was chocolate.
Culturally Bayonne is a mix of Basque and Gascon. Several things are named after the city, for example, hunting knives attached to muskets by local peasants are the origin of 'bayonet'. The name of the city seems to have been corrupted to form the word 'mayonnaise' too.
They make very nice air dried ham in the vicinity and the paprika like spice espelette is grown here. It has the oldest tradition of bullfighting in France, and not far out of town we passed a field full of small black bulls with silver tips on their horns.
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2 comments:
There is no way you can go from Bordeaux to Poitiers by way of Bayonne since Bordeaux is halfway between Bayonne and Poitiers! Or did you mean from Saint-Jean-de-Luz to Poitiers?
Yes, my mistake. We went from Saint-Jean-de-Luz to Poitiers, changing trains in Bordeaux. I'll correct the post.
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