I’m rather afraid that there’s not much to say about today as it’s been a complete washout. Not just raining but absolutely chucking it down from dawn to dusk, this was the view from our window this morning.

We delayed breakfast as long as we could but sooner or later you have to do something; so we went just down the road from the hotel to the Whirly Wash and did some laundry. That killed an hour.

Out again and being lashed by wind and rain we clung on to umbrellas for dear life; toured the (indoor) market then went for a coffee. This gave us a moment for planning and when we had finished we took our courage in both hands, sprinted across the bridge and dived into the Musée Basque.

This proved to be an absolute gem of a place. Firstly it was dry and warm and secondly the exhibits were really good. There was all the usual guff about the farming and fishing culture but with really good exhibits and well laid out. The domestic life section had bucolic tableware displayed on some truly enormous old kitchen dressers and sections on traditional clothing and footwear. The best bit for us though was wonderful, scratchy old black and white film showing the culture of the Basque area. This was silent film that had had ‘appropriate’ sound post dubbed onto it which really added to the experience and was often hilarious too.

Hunger eventually got the better of us so we left the museum, it was still raining and after lunch abandoned the day back at the hotel. In the evening it nearly stopped raining so we went out for some dinner. We were surprised to see how much water was coming down the River Nive and all the debris it was carrying.

When we came out it was belting down again so more drying to do. Not the best day of the holiday but it must be really bad for the local tourist industry and the farmers as this awful weather is most unusual and has been going on for ages.

And now for something completely different, we came across this today and it did make us laugh.

12 June 2018