Saturday, May 18
The forecast for this weekend showed a lot of rain and thunderstorms, but we all know to expect the forecast to change at the drop of a hat in this area. When I woke up, conditions were downright pleasant: my washed clothes were finishing up drying on the balcony in the sun and people were headed to the beach with combinaisons & surf boards. I eventually made it out of the house, first heading to St Charles Place to get coffee (and an apricot jelly donut since it was right there) as well picking up more sun block and poking my head into a store operated by a MOF.
A massive donut with a hefty helping of apricot jelly inside, a great way to start the day in sunny St. Charles Place
Meilleur Ouvrier de France; this shop had all sorts of patés, sausages, hams, tarts, and cooked dishes.
A mega-sized gateau basque; I was very tempted to add a slice to my order
My morning achats made, I pulled the trigger on today's plan: visit Salies-de-Béarn. This town was put on my radar by the article I read on the flight back from Ajaccio. The article's description of the town was interesting and I remember having driven by the area a couple times before while heading east. The big thing for most of this town's history was its salt production (hence salies)
The centreville isn't particularly big. I arrived and parked near the casino (on the outskirt of the centreville map) thinking that it was the main parking lot. Instead of heading directly into town, I took a detour to visit an active saline (salt producer); unfortunately, they had closed their visiting hours just about when I'd left Biarritz.
First stop: les Salines. From what I recall from my time in Bayonne, AOP Jambon de Bayonne is cured with salt from les Saliés-de-Béarn
What would they need a crane for?
From what I could gather from signs posted to the wall, the reservoir is filled with saline water and the crane is used to move salts and water to drying basins. I bet those plaques just past the fence could tell me more...
This place isn't really a museum, it's a salt producer with a touristic veranda and a big gift shop; but still...
Insert a Price is Right losing horn here
Spotted on the walk back from the Salines to town; some people here really seem to invest in their houses and yards
As I turned towards the town, I ended up walking by the current thermes (hot-ish water spa), which was built upon the first industrial saline plant in the town. I guess in it's heyday as a resort destination, the this part of town would have been bustling with high class people on vacation.
Today, the streets were real quiet but I had lovely weather for walking about in my espadrillas
Made a friend on the way into town. There were actually quite a few cats milling about these quiet streets, some more outgoing than others.
The thermes building from the back; it seems part of it is still under construction/rennovation but I like the color scheme.
For decades, salt production was artisanal and a household business. An 1840 law decreed by Louis-Philippe to make collection of tax on salt production easier required salt producers to deliver at least 500,000 kg of salt per year for domestic consumption and taxation. This pushed the incorporation of some groups to build a saline that could conform with the law's volume requirements. In 1843, the saline started producing and was surrounded by a tall fence with ample clearance on either side and a single door (as required by law)
If the thermes is built into an old saline, does that mean the pools are salt water?
From there, I crossed the river and walked through the charming streets of the centreville. Really small pedestrian streets but it's the plants, facades, and roofs that made the experience. Per Google Maps, most restaurants were about to end their service for the afternoon so I found a place to sit down and eat before doing more sightseeing.
I was so occupied with the river route's construction that I didn't notice the house on stilts at first...
A pleasant stroll through some narrow streets packed to the gills with potted plants and charm.
How come no one's out doing laundry today? 😂
Someone stopped by to say hi during my meal
And here I thought I'd opted for the healthy option with the salad...
I really lucked out on weather for my outdoor lunch. I was quite comfortable chilling on the sidewalk with my sunglasses 😎
After the meal, I made my way to the office of tourisme. Just outside the office was a group of people (who'd just left the restaurant) and what appeared to be a tour guide. I listened in for a bit, thinking it was a free town tour but it was a guided tour of the town square's crypt (where the middle-age saline pool was). The office gave me a guidebook including maps of several associated Béarnaise towns and also confirmed that all spots to see the crypt were filled for the day (c'est dommage). While milling around the square and following the guide, I stopped in a shop called Lokal which was a coop of local producers and I picked up a few souvenirs. This required me to visit the car to drop them off; I dropped off my jacket too since the afternoon had gotten really warm with all the sunlight.
Apparently there's a national (European?) museum night, with three museums in the region offering free admission and special evening hours.
The story goes that the saline spring of the town was discovered when a hunter injured a boar that ran off, the boar was later discovered dead and covered in salt crystals.
They say the boar said "if I hadn't died here, no one would live here".
Back from the car, I headed straight to the museum of salt. This was an interesting place and spanned a huge time-frame: back in pre-history, people were making salt here by boiling water in jars and then breaking the jars open. The ground floor was about ancient history to the middle-ages, featuring the set up the artisanal saliés would have in their homes. The first floor was about lifestyle in the region as it entered the modern age and the economy shifted towards industrial salt production and thermal resorts. the 2nd floor was a geological look at the area: an explanation of salt crystals and the components of the saline as well as the formation of the region and why a salt water spring is here.
Turns out there's several access ways to the river passing through town, but this section here seemed the shallowest / most protected.
In the old days, special workers called tiradors would run salt water from the spring (in the town center plaza) to the homes of people who'd purchased or been allocated X number of buckets (these were called sameaus). There was an example of different densities of water that involved using an egg to find the interface between dense saline and light rainwater.
I found these panels to be really interesting at explaining the ritual of distributing salt water to houses in 130kg buckets conducted a few times a year.
The households could then use the salt water at their pace to evaporate water in their lead trays and harvest different qualities/compositions of salt
Tatin! The museum is built inside one of such houses and thus has the coleder, dulin, and paderas! There wasn't a raging wood-fire going so no live demonstration, but I appreciated having all the equipment set up.
Two guys carrying 150 kg buckets of salt water around has some serious "get out of the way!" energy
The distribution of salt water became an important topic to define and develop a legal framework. As the times, religious patterns, and borders changed, the need for salt (and its revenue in taxes) remained a constant thread.
Working my way up to the 2nd floor was a huge shift in time frame: we went from ye olde saliés to "the rail road is coming!" But this floor also had some more info about the daily life of people; like this tool for wrapping cord soles for shoes.
Like the Basque, the Béarnaise also found rope soled shoes to be more convenient that wooden clogs since the land tends to be rocky around here.
This pre-dates the radio flyer wagon but was used by tourists for carting young children around whilst visiting the town.
I'd walked right by this building before entering the museum, I'll have to double back to examine it more carefully.
I know they're just buckets, but something about having different shapes for buckets just seems so satisfying to me 😂
Up on the top floor of the museum, we jumped all the back to geologic history. But this was an interesting discovery because I'd previously seen restaurants offering fleur de sel with some dishes; turns out that in the right conditions, the NaCl crystals float to the surface and floculate into flower-petal shaped rafts.
And here we see why there's salt here: it got squeezed out like a zit. Yes, salt is the savory pus of the earth...
Highly recommend the salt museum of Saliés-de-Béarn, you might say the ticket price was worth its salt 🧂
After the museum, I did a quick walk around town following the paper guide; not too much else to see. Perhaps the forecast of thunderstorms would come to pass, the sky was now covered in a blanket of gray clouds. Still, I decided to press my luck and drove the 15 minutes to the town of Sauveterre-de-Béarn, which was listed in my guide book. Oh, forgot to mention, the office of tourisme had told me that today/tonight is national museum night and that the museum in Salies and Sauveterre would be open this evening for free (each was only like $4 anyways, but still).
La Maison Marrou, now that I've seen it in the museum I can appreciate it's weird shape and external bread oven.
The inlet to the museum's salt water cistern, le dulin
The main plaza is where the large basin for the tiradores was but now it's a flat plaza with a crypt accessible by reserved tours. Oh "well"
Doing my walk around town and I spotted this ridiculously point roof; it looks like it's about to say which house this house belongs to.
Per the tourist office's map for a self-guided tour, this is a completely legit walkway...
Overall, the smaller streets of Saliés de Bearn were pretty charming. I'm a fan of the balconies and roof levels.
One last look down the river at some interesting Béarnaise architecture.
Last stop on the self-guided tour was the church; to be fair, it looks pretty different from the ones I've seen in smaller Basque towns; no triple decker platforms along the back.
I aimed for a quick walk around Sauveterre and stopped by the museum located about halfway up/down the tower. The lady at the desk said free entry would start in about an hour so I said I'd come back after finishing my loop of the town. Unfortunately, this is when the rain started to come down in earnest. I still finished hitting most of the major items listed in the guide book, but I waited for the heaviest rain to die down before working my way back to the car. Since my shoes were wet I decided to just head home; the museum at Sauveterre didn't seem particularly big and I was wondering if maybe a museum in Biarritz was doing something tonight.
I don't have any way of planting and growing these, but €1 is pretty compelling deal for moving plants.
As I arrived in town, these guys seemed to be wrapping up their game of pelote with paddles.
The town hall sat a the corner of a massive open square across from the church and the office of toursime.
The church is by far the most imposing building in Sauveterre-de-Béarn
I'm still trying to decide if painting the interior of the church is returning it to as intended (because why wouldn't they have painted thing back then).
Sauveterre's major landmarks, based on my limited understanding, are the tower and the legendary bridge
It's a tall tower (and per the panel, an effective one), but it's definitely seen better days and I wouldn't say its a real "looker"
Starting to get some rain as I work my way along the river to le pont de légend
The walk along the river included some wild-looking paths and steps back up
I think I can see where the neighbor's roof used to attach...
This bridge is legend (wait for it) dairy. It used to feature a drawbridge to connect to the island on the other side of the river.
Paraphrasing the legend: When the king of Béarn died, the queen was accused of killing her son. The king of Navarre, being her oh-so-helpful brother, declared the only way to prove her innocence would be a trial by water. 3000 people gathered on the bridge to watch the queen, feet and hands bound, be thrown into the river. Instead of her guilt weighing her down to a torrid watery grave, she floated gently downstream and washed up on the shore a short distance away as an innocent woman. To commemorate what was surely a miracle of the Virgin, the queen had a quilt made and sent to the cathedral of Notre Dame in Rocamadour.
A part of me hopes that the king of Navarre had the foresight to stick balloons or something inside his sister's dress before decreeing it was "the only way" to determine her innocence.
While I was out in the covered part of the bridge, the rain started to come down super hard. At this point, my shoes were starting to get wet but I hung out a bit to let the heavier downpour pass.
While waiting, I realized that this pigeon was trying to block my sight of the chicks inside the nest.
Once the rain settled down, I hoofed it back through town towards the car. The town certainly has a lot of medieval stone structures, but it's unclear to me how many have been incorporated into people's houses and how many are simply abandoned pending renovation.
I wish it hadn't been raining, I feel like there's some interesting things in Sauveterre but they're maybe not all accessible to tourists. The town seems to have some well conserved parts but not like Carcasonne.
Turns out, no museums in Biarritz were participating in the museum night program but I had a nice dinner on my balcony and managed to see the sun cross the horizon for sunset.
I started with an artichoke I'd picked up on a whim. I gotta say, I've become a huge fan of the artichoke stem too.
Turns out the plat du jour to go was a chicken cordon bleu; not the rabbit leg I'd asked for but still a tasty meal of great value.
Might as well check the sunset now that the torrential downpour for the day is over. Overall, I'd say today's adventure in Béarn was fun, educational, and definitely worthwhile. I'm still not sure of what the cultural differences between the Basque, Béarnaise, Landaise, and Gascons are but I'm guessing there was at least a bit of overlap.
Side Note: my desk mate at work grew up in the Béarnaise region. When I asked him about Béarnaise sauce, he told me it doesn't really have much to do with, nor much use in, Béarnaise cuisine. Maybe a chef came up with the idea while visiting Béarn 🤷♂️
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