231. Into Summer

4th June. This evening we had another pilgrimage to Chez Pantxua, one of our favorite restaurants on the Côte Basque. As always, it was absolutely faultless. (They have a cod omelet on their starter menu - mmm!) It's ideally situated (map here) by the sailing center at Socoa (just across the bay of Saint-Jean-de-Luz) with a large car park nearby. Afterwards, a post-prandial waddle around the harbor is the perfect end to the evening.
3rd June. Two or three little-known factoids for you when it all goes quiet in the snug:
The first motor race to be called a Grand Prix was held at Pau on the street circuit that runs around the town center. Hard to imagine that those technically advanced cars from the great German teams of the 1930s - Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union - raced around these narrow streets.

Place Royale

I read the other day that Mary Lincoln, the widow of the assassinated US president, moved to Pau in 1876 and lived there for 4 years at two addresses before settling on the Hôtel de la Paix at the quintessentially French square Place Royale, Pau. The former Hôtel de la Paix has since been converted into apartments (next to Le Majestic restaurant).

Villa Eugénie

And in a similar move, the Empress Eugénie (widow of Napoleon III) moved to England following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian war in 1870. She lived at Farnborough Hill (now a Catholic Girls School) from 1880 until her death in 1920. She had previously spent her summers at the magnificent Villa Eugénie - now the Hotel du Palais at Biarritz.    
Following a disastrous fire in 1903, the Villa Eugénie was rebuilt and enlarged as we see it today in all its glory.

Hotel du Palais