Saturday morning was gloomy. Our last day and how to spend it? By now I had discovered the webcam at the top of La Rhune and it was showing thick cloud cover so this wasn’t the day to finally give in and join the crowds at the top. Mind you, looking at the webcam one evening after dark was interesting as the countryside below was sprinkled with lights with the dark mass of the Atlantic in the distance. Pity there are no night trains!

The first thing I wanted to do was go in to Sare and buy a cherry gateau basque for our neighbours who were holding the house key for us and had waxed lyrical about les gateaux.

We squeezed into a parking space just below the village and walked up past the fair on the car park and into the centre ville. Oddly, the bars and restaurants were all still closed despite having bar counters complete with beer taps and optics outside. Children were milling around being supervised so we assumed this was for later events in the day. It felt as if something big was going to happen.. but not yet.

With gateau safely bought and wrapped I paid a last visit to the church as I had read there was a plaque to one of the women killed during ‘the terror’ of the 18th century when the deportations were happening.

Back at the car we took off in the direction of Saint-Pee-sur-Nivelle, a pretty village we had passed through on our way to and from Espelette and later, Bayonne. It has a tiny museum dedicated to local game of pelote. We had seen so many pelote pitches but never a game in progress. Of course, we passed one on our way to St-Pee! Typically, comme d’hab, nowhere to park and watch. But at least we had seen evidence that all those pitches were not obsolete.

We knew that St-Pee or Senpere as it is known in Basque has a one way system that coming from the direction of Sare swings you well away from the centre ville. So I carefully parked before the junction. As we walked towards town I spotted two impressive murals celebrating two heroes of cycling.

I subsequently hunted online for anything to do with the murals but apart from a mention that the Tour de France once passed through Senpere I couldn’t find anything to explain their presence. But as a cycling fan myself I was irresistibly drawn to them although I was more the era of Indurain than Poulidor!

Along the one way street we found a small market in progress and I spotted my honey man from Thursday in Sare.

As we wandered we looked at several restaurant menus for ideas for lunch. Senpere is very well served for places to eat….and drink as evidenced by the knot of drinkers around strategically placed barrel/bars on the pavement! Here was the market morning atmosphere we had missed in Sare.

A straightforward menu de jour appealed to us offered by a cafe overlooking the market and having been shown there was a sheltered adjacent terrace we opted to eat outside. The impressively large church was just a few steps away.

Lunch was delicious and I chose to start with a soup, flavoured with Bayonne ham, of course, which gave me an idea for how to cheer up the endless quantities of squash and pumpkin soup I end up making every autumn!

This was followed by fish of the day sitting on yummy ‘mash’ and a creamy sauce scattered with pumpkin seeds…

…and then I opted for the deconstructed lemon meringue tart. The meringue was crunchy bits scattered over the lemon…delicious! This is the kind of lunch we love. Three courses, no fuss, and still possible to find at very reasonable prices. Wine and coffee is often included although cheese is sometimes extra or instead of dessert if you prefer.

Leaving himself on a handy bench I went off to explore that church.

The entrance or portico, as I assume it is called, is three stories high with a clock. The scale of the Basque churches twinned with their bulk made them seem impregnable so I assumed that was their purpose, places of sanctuary as well as places of worship.

Inside there were the beautiful wooden galleries but it was the golden altar piece that took my breath away. Above it the ceiling was in the form of an enormous scallop shell reminding the onlooker of the closeness of the Santiago de Compostela way as the various routes across France converge on the western edge of the Spanish French border.

Once again the galleries were closed to visitors….

Before rescuing Mr McGregor from his bench I took a quick turn around the gardens beyond the church and found an interesting wooden statue..

Looking again at the inscription I am reminded that I need to find the poems to illuminate the sculptor’s inspiration.

There was still the pelote museum which was housed in the tourist office where I was hoping to find about more about Senpere. Deciding on the spur of the moment to visit I hadn’t had time to Google any of its history or places of interest. Since then I have discovered that the willow ‘raquet’ used in the game was invented in Senpere and is called an xistera or chistera and there are twentyone versions of the pelote game.

Sadly the museum and tourist office were closed on Saturday afternoons, nor was there any activity on the pelote court alongside. Himself covered his relief well!

So it was back past the cyclists and the beautiful red and white houses to the car. I wondered out loud whether there were stringent planning laws surrounding new builds ss the ones we had seen all conformed to the white walls and red or green shutters at every window.

Back at the campsite there was a sign warning about noise from the fete in the evening. Apparently that’s when everything comes alive in Sare. But not for us. We had the packing and cleaning to do and an early night as we had to vacate by 9am… and bid goodbye to the chickens, bien sur, one of whom came round and prostrated herself on the porch, sorry to see us leave? Or just enjoying some sunshine?

Maybe we’ll be back as there is still so much more to explore and discover in this fascinating region that we had found quite by chance.

the website for the train and that webcam is http://www.rhune.com.fr

our campsite can be found at http://www.lapetiterhune.com