Walking to Bordeaux St Jean station was a pleasure:  blue skies, few people and little to no traffic – everything glowed in the sun and we actually felt warm as we approached the station.  Our positive mood was slightly dimmed by the news that our train to Hendaye was delayed by 90 minutes.

A quick word on choosing tickets to get to Hendaye.  We used the Trainline app (other outlets are available) but I also checked on the ticket machines at the station:  tickets go to ‘Hendaye-Plage’ or ‘Hendaye- all stations’.  We had purchased the ones to Hendaye-Plage (my mistake) which required (according to our tickets) some chopping and changing at the end of our journey.  We ignored this and just stayed on the train (we were ticketed all the way through to Hendaye, just in a roundabout way).  Next time we will pick the ‘Hendaye-all’ option!

The train runs mostly due South, all the way to the Spanish border. Sadly, not close to the coast until right at the end of the journey.

Leaving Bordeaux, the train tracks through lengthy urban sprawl (with the requisite post-industrial empty shells and graffitti) until reaching pine tree plantations.   The flat landscape is dominated by fields of pine tree plantations at different growth stages: young trees glowed in the sun, bronze-tipped with new growth; older trees, bare-trunked, bearing a dark-green pompom of needles; the occasional crooked tree, covered in ivy.  Younger plantations were interwoven with hotly flowering gorse, older plantations were darkly shaded.

Where there were open fields, they were enormous (and did I mention ‘very flat’ yet?) and we flashed past several electricity farms – I have never seen quite so many solar panels.

After an arrow-straight run to Dax (at high speed), the train slowed a bit, turning and tilting as it wound its way through minor undulations. Blue sky disappeared under grey clouds, with lush green fields, tumbles of hedgerow and scrubby forest. There were still pine plantations just far fewer of them.

Bayonne sits on the river Adour and the approach runs past a lot of water – these could be reservoirs, or the many tributories of the river. Either way, there’s lot of it! Pulling out of the station, heading South (and maybe a bit West), you immediately cross the Adour.

After Bayonne it’s thickly wooded, with glimpses of water (not the sea) and urban development.

And then Biarritz. Sadly, the station is outside the centre and has none of the glamour and glitz associated with the swanky seaside town.

Approaching Saint-Jean-de-Luz- Cibourg, there is a teasing flash of blue behind the ranks of houses, then the coast bursts into full view.

Saint-Jean-de-Luz – Cibourg has a WW2 story associated with it: apparently Hitler was due to meet Franco there, but was kept waiting for over an hour while Franco had a post-lunch nap. I hope it’s true! It’s amusing to think of Hitler impatiently striding about the station waiting for someone who is having a snooze.

The station is very pretty – small, red-brick with white stucco.

Beyond the station the Pyrenees loom out of dark grey clouds – it’s difficult to tell which is cloud and which is mountain. And finally Hendaye, which is equally pretty (but very pink).

The Euskotren station is on the right, as you leave Hendaye mainline station.  There was a queue and the decision was made to walk to Irun, having consulted a map.  So we set off – Spain was just across the river.

What hadn’t been looked at was the distance from Hendaye mainline station to Irun Euskotren station.  Which was not ‘just over the river’, but much further, however we were on our way, so decided to carry on.

Yes, it started to rain – a bit – and it was decidely cool. Coats and waterproofs went on.

We walked past Irun station, thinking to get a taxi – or even a bus – to the hotel.  But then just carried on walking.  I mean, why not?

Fortunately it was flat (a mercy, given the surrounding mountains).  The sun came out; the waterproofs and coats came off.  Then the jumpers came off.

We crossed over another river (or tributary)

and into Hondarribia

The sun was out, the skies were blue.  We had arrived!