Blog du D933

Taken from the Bridge out of Sauveterre, facing East to Ile de la Glere.

6km along the road, near the 38km marker, there is a layby come crossroads at the top of the hill. At lunch time there are quite a few cars parked under the trees ; salesmen or delivery trucks having a siesta before hitting the road again. The views from up here are maginificient. But you'll have to take my word for it as this is the best my photographic talent can manage for the minute.

More later.

Three kms down the road from Sauveterre and we are "over the border" and into in the Basque country. Osserain is in Soule, Saint Palais further along the road is in Navarre. This picture is taken from the South looking North, along the road back towards Sauveterre.

I wanted to take some pictures of this abandoned sawmill and the wooden reception building as it is shortly to be replaced. It has been inactive for over a year and has been bought by a company importing furniture - some of it from India and China.

From making things from wood, to storage space for furniture made in China... so goes the world. The new arrival is also a reminder that this road is due to become a dual carriageway. A main road from France to Spain, relinking Navarre North and Navarre South.

After meeting a pilgrim entering Saint Palais the other day who asked for directions to the House of the Franciscans, I've just read an article in the local paper announcing that it will soon be closed. Article in French

There are only 2 monks left in the Franciscan Monastery and with less and less monks in France (under 300) the Fransiscans are having to close monasteries all over the country. This one has offered accomodation to pilgrims on the route to Compestela and also to homeless and to students. It will be closed in a few months and the convent building is for sale.

Honestly, its not that I’m mad about roundabouts.

But after posting the last message I thought that there was nothing to stop me walking out of Saint Palais and taking a few photos of the end of my road.

Again with a bypass the D933 no longer runs through the centre of this town and like Sauveterre it's a recent "improvement". In quotes because shops in town particularly think its a bad thing not to have traffic driving through the town. The big test will be this summer.

Anyway back to the roundabout. I'd honestly never thought about this before but roundabouts as still photographs really are great. They show a choice fixed forever in time. In a fork in the road there's the question "Do I take the left or the right". These roundabouts have more options.

In a morning, I arrive from the road on the right. There's a difficult to see right turn to a shop called Espace Copie Bureautique and a few houses and then another right into Saint Palais. Further round and to the left on this photo is the road onto the bypass and onto Saint Jean Pied de Port. The road below where I took the photo, comes up the hill to Behasque and across to the Soule and Mauleon. Its another and very different Basque province.

I’ve got a choice. To get to work I can go though Saint Palais or head onto the bypass, staying on the D933 and then turn off at the next roundabout. Oooh more photo opportunities - yes and there is one more roundabout on this road, the best of the lot,  and thats it.

And this next photo is the bypass. I wish I'd worked out photography already. On this photograph you should see the rolling valleys of the Basque Country and the snow topped peaks of the Pyrennes mountains in the distance. If you click on the photo you should be able to zoom in.

Oh and I nearly forgot. Walking out a km of Saint Palais to the roundabout, I came across someone walking who asked me the way to the "Maison de franciscains". Hearing the accent I asked if she was English she said yes but I suspect she was American (or from New Zealand and I seem to have a problem dinguishing the accents). I told her first on the left after the bridge, but I saw her looking lost in the centre of town later on as I was driving past.

Its a strange thing walking along road used only by cars, you feel that you're making a spectacle of yourself - I'm going to have problems getting used to it I think.

Lovely weather, but I just haven't had the time to stop the car and take photos yet. Did stop at a deserted sawmill on Friday but after one photo the camera seized up, demanding a new battery. The sawmill is at km 3 along the stretch of road I'm hoping to cover and I want to take pictures fairly quickly because it will shortly be convered to warehousing for mock-antique furniture imported from abroad.

Other stops I want to make soon are at km 1, the view from the village of Guinarthe back to Sauveterre. The bridge between Guinarthe and Osserain which marks the border between the béarn and the basque country.

I also want to get some pictures of the road signs and the milestones (or km-stones) that are found along the road.

So. More soon, promise.

The D933 is a road that starts from the Landes, just accross the Gave de Pau river and descends through the Béarn and the Basque Country to the Spanish border where it becomes the N135 and passes through Roncesvalles on the way to Pampaluna. The road from Sauveterre and then from Ostabat after Saint Palias through to Saint Jean Pied de Port is part of the pilgrim road to Compestella.

My drive to work from Sauveterre-de-Béarn to Saint-Palais is along  12km stretch that takes me from the Béarn into the Basque country. Historically and culturally very different regions that coexist today in the same French département : Pyrénées Atlantiques.

The D933 passed through Sauveterre just a few years ago. There is now a deviation around the medieval town and this photo shows the roundabout where I join the D933 on the way to work. I arrive from the left - the exit is hardly visible on this photo - and take a left-turn on the road that goes up the photo and off into the distance, over the Gave d'Oloron river and onto the Basque Country. The road to the right takes you onto the deviation and back north to Salies-de-Béarn. A roundabout further up the road allows you to turn off for Athos, the original home of one of the Three Musketeers.

Just looking at the photo here - it's very green isn't it !