Making the Most of Your Time

Making the Most of Your Time

Unless you prefer rising with the sun, traveling west to east, with the sun behind you as the shadows lengthen, is the best way to approach this part of the Pyrénées. Bayonne is the natural starting point, at the mouth of the Atlantic Pyrenean watershed, with the Basque Museum as an instructive primer for the culture of the villages you are about to go through.Biarritz and St-Jean-de-Luz offer opportunities for beach time and glamour. The picturesque villages of Sare, Ainhoa, and Bidarrai all guide you into the mountains and valleys, threaded by rivers flowing into the Nive.St-Jean-Pied-de-Port is a Pyrenean hub from which Eugénie-les-Bains, Sauveterre de Bearn, and Navarrenx are short detours before continuing east to Pau, the Hautes-Pyrénées, and their crowning glory, Gavarnie.

Wherever you head, make haste slowly: this region's proximity to Spain comes to life in its architecture, in the expressive Midi accent, which turns the word demain (tomorrow) into "demaing," and the slow-paced lifestyle.