Orthez (Béarn Region of France)

Light rain overnight and raining as we got up. Drove to the French border at Irun, filling up with 60€ of fuel @ 1.16€ per litre, which was a good saving, as petrol is 1.48 € in France. We had lunch at Sauveterre-de-Béarn, an attractive medieval market town, and spent an hour exploring the sights, inc church, fortified bridge and chateau.

On to Orthez , an important Béarn market town, with its 13th Century fortified bridge, an important crossing point over the Gave de Pau river in the middle ages, still a swirling torrent from melting snows from the Pyrenees. Also, churches and chateaux as in previous town. The Tourist Office is housed in one of the many fine sandstone mansions, and is where Jeanne d’Albret gave birth to Henry IV.

We camped in the Municipal campsite at about 3 pm, unusually quiet, but with quite a fewtents and caravans and a container being used as a dwelling. Also, there were a few “pilgrims” walking the Santiago de Compostela caminos, as Orthez is on the route. However, many were elderly and arrived in minivans, so not sure whats going on there. Chris also talked to one of them , who confirmed he was on the way to Santiago de Compostela, over 1,000 km in North Western Spain, and also had a log book of stops, which he got the campsite manager to stamp “Orthez”, although he is not camping here this evening. Also, on returning from exploring the town, there were about 20 Eastern European workers apparently living on the site. Not sure if they are seasonal workers picking fruit and veg, or manual workers working on motorway construction. Spent the evening uploading pics and the blog – unfortunately no wifi.