LA PETITE SOULAN

We can spot Spain bathing its trail of blue mountains in the Bay of Biscay. The Rhune mountain is camped resolutely above the cove and the last mountains of the Pyrenees stop in the bay. It is a piece of the Atlantic stuck against the Pyrenees. A path lined with oaks, sprigs of honeysuckle and rosehip bushes leads to the beach.

Or the pearls of the Basque coast, seaside resorts of the Belle Epoque. In the past, fishermen used to brandish their harpoons to strike the whale from these ports. Biarritz with its neo-gothic follies, rococo villas, and stuccoed mansions: all daring realizations of art deco and art nouveau of the seaside architecture. The Hôtel du Palais, the mythical symbol of this town on the Basque coast, the Russian church with its blue dome and the emblematic Villa Belza on a rock beaten by the sea. In the natural cove, it is a daily staging of the ocean. And the delicious macaroon of Maison Adam after a swim.

In Saint-Jean-de-Luz, the café on the Place Louis XIV, the house of the Infanta of Spain, pink and white, looks out over the port. It is a real fishing port with rust or blue nets and their buoys with multicolored flags. You have to stop for the Basque cake of Maison Pariès, with almond cream or black cherry jam from Itxassou. On the beach, the striped tents, where families from Saint-Jean-de-Luz spend the summer.

Less known, Guéthary with the few boats placed on the paved hold. The houses nestled in the hydrangea foliage seem to turn white at a glance. A tapas bar along the ocean, fresh anchovies served at the table with a little garlic and a drizzle of olive oil, a slice of melon and mussels...