A rainy day the day we went to the charming Basque town of Hondarribia, Spain for a tour and a coffee! I love the streets and the town squares, fabulous. We had a couple of hours here to walk around and stop and have a coffee. The old Quarter was pretty interesting and the statue (2nd photo down) was a bronze sculpture of a bearded soldier wearing a bearskin hat and carrying a saw. Located just outside the Santa María Gate (St. Mary Gate), it honors the soldiers who cleared obstacles for troops.
Soldier 
I loved this! Little cutie in a backpack! 
Church of Santa María de la Asunción y del Manzano 
Town Square 
I like seeing unusual things like this on the wall 
We walked down towards the water, nice view
Well, after our visit, tour and coffee it was back to France to the village of St Jean de Lux. The Cathedral Saint Andre was stunning, beautiful architecture. It rained quite a bit this particular day but we made the best of it and we stopped at a lovely restaurant for a nice lunch and chatted with some locals. Below is a house built in 1643 by a rich ship-owner who welcomed King Louis XIV to stay in 1660. He stayed for several months and while there he signed the Treaty des Pyrénées and married the Spanish Infanta Marie Thérèse.
cathédrale saint andre 
cathédrale saint andre 
Inside 
Inside 
Square 
Harbour 
Our hotel lobby in Bordeaux a the Hotel First Name !
Next stop on our 2025 adventure is Saint Emilion………..
Trums Travels 
Wow man, that church is so beautiful inside and out! I love the unique architecture too, Europeans have very different tastes than we North Americans. I wonder how heavy the soldier’s helmet weighed?
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I love churches, the history, architecture, it’s all fascinating. I think the armor weighed a LOT and everything seemed small. I think people were a lot smaller back then.
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I’ve seen a TV show or read something about how people were smaller back then but how? If so, why are we so much taller?
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Probably because of all the hormones they put in all of our food. I read something about that too. I like to try to buy fresh vegetables and fruits that are local but sometimes even butcher shops buy meat that have chemicals in them.
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So then, I’m going to get taller whether I want to or not, eh? 😂
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🤣 probably!
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If Trum saw you posing with that HUGE dog he’d freak!! Imagine having to haul that around like Trum!!
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Haha! Yes Trum wouldn’t be happy, he’s a jealous type lol
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I liked the buildings with the red doors, red around the windows – very unique, as is the identical window boxes with flowers. I like how that looks and as always, I love the cobblestone streets which makes it even more picturesque. The picture with the big dog is very cute!
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I’ve never seen a stuffie that big! I love photographing doors and I do love cobblestone streets 😀
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It was huge – you saw so many unusual things, not just architecture and cobbestone streets, but the cool things in quaint little towns as well.
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