2025-france-part-6

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• Mon 10th Feb
  Descended from Canfranc to Jaca, a very convenient stop, and it turned out to be a nice town with a very old town centre. We walked to the TIC, and visited the old cathedral en route. Fortunately, I had my phone and was able to take some pictures. Much more interesting architecturally and decoratively than those we saw recently in France. We had to enter seperately, because we had Josie with us, and took a photo of her between shifts. Unfortunately, she stuck her tongue out.

  

  
  
  
  
  
• Tue 11th Feb
  Two monasteries, the original abandoned after it was destroyed by fire. Nuevo San Juan de La Peña, a drive up a windy steep road to a plateau, the road wide enough for two vehicles to pass in most places, so not as alarming as some of the roads we encountered in France.
  The outside of the monastery.

  

  The ticket was for two monasteries and a church. Behind this 17th century facade was a series of glass covered walkways, with ruined foundations of, presumably, the monastery. We were given an audio guide, difficult to understand with an accented woman rattling off what seemed to be a general Spanish history lesson, with no relevance to the monastery.
  

  Model figures indicating activities carried out in the various places.

  

  All the information boards, and there were many, were all in Spanish.

  

  All very lavishly and expensively done, but not at all interesting. The best part was driving up the side of the mountain, and the excellent dog walk through a thick woodland at the top.

• The old monastery.
  A little way down the twisty road, this 10th century monastery was built under a cliff overhang, and much of the rock face was incorporated into the monastery.
  

  

  This was much more interesting, and we had an information sheet detailing the function of each room.
  

  

  

  

  

  

  A very much later addition.
  

• Then the old church.
  10th century again, situated at the foot of the mountain. For unknown reason, I was only allowed to take one photo inside, although that was quite enough.
  Looked heavy and brooding from outside.

  

  The inside.

  

  The pretty village adjacent to the church.

  

   

  A short drive Castillo de Javier. Park4night gave us the option of two car parks, we drove to the first, a large empty space, no one there, and we couldn’t see the castle, so drove to the second car park, a few yards away. Another large well laid out car park, loads of space, no one there. We parked up, and had to walk through a third deserted car park, this one reserved for guests of the two hotels, the restaurant, snack bar etc. All closed, except a door in the second hotel was open. No one around. With some trepidation we approached the castle, was it really open? Google says open to 4.00 pm, very unspanish hours, and it was now about 3.00 pm.
  And, astonishingly, there was a lady behind the reception desk!
  The castle.

  

   

   

  Looks impressive enough, the inside had been completely sanitised, floors, ceilings covered with modern materials. As an example, the only photo I took inside, was “The Battlements”.

  

  Doors thoroughly locked.

  We stayed the night in car park two, the only person we saw the whole time we were here was the lady receptionist in the castle. Both car parks were fully illuminated at night, loads of powerful lights. All for our sole benefit. All very odd, and rather surreal.

• The Loneliness of Javier.
  Car park 2.
  

  Car park 3.
  

  And, there is a helicopter landing pad, just up the path. Also empty.
  

• Wed 12th Feb
  Olite, and the Palacio Real. On a drab and dribbley day. I keep telling Sue we haven’t gone far enough west. Anyway, we both enjoyed the castle. Built in the 12th century, but destroyed during the Napoleonic wars, to deny access to the Napoleonic troops, and then rebuilt and restored from 1937, taking 30 years.

  A road in the old town leading to the castle.

  

  A real fun castle, loads of turrets, spiral staircases, an adult theme park!

  

  

  

  A view looking up.

  

  

  And Sue up there. She was obviously enjoying herself, no complaining about the numerous steps.
  Looking the other way.
  

  One of the courtyards.

  

  Seen on a nearby, hopefully redundant, chimney.

  

  Another tower.

  

  On top.

  

• Thu 13th Feb
  Navarro was a parking impossible, until we settled on an out of town Carrefour supermarket car park, from whence I was able to catch a bus into the centre of town, for the princely sum of €1.00. Obtained info from the TIC, and then drove to the town centre M/H parking in Najero. Except, today is market day, parking closed. A short way away another parking in the small village of Urunuela. Josie and I went for a walk round the village. Ten benches, an uninviting looking bar, four drinking fountains, a tattoo shop and two weighbridge.
  A very quiet night!
• Fri 14th Feb
  Two monasteries.
  The first, Santa Maria La Real, in Najera.
  We went back to the Najera parking, market gone, so parking easy.
  Very tall decorative cloisters.

  

  

  

  

  

  The church. Very Spanish. Dates back to 1516, although the site has been used since 1052.

  

• Cont’d
  The founding of the monastery has an unlikely and implausible legend involving a cave, found in 1052, containing an image of the Virgin, a vase with lilies, a bell and a lamp.
  The cave….
  

  The tomb of Lady Blanca of Navarre, 12th century.

  

  A side chapel.
  

• The Cistercian Abbey of Canas.

  In none of these monasteries are the buildings used by monks and others either open or even existing, so we just get to see a church and cloister, and so it was at Canas.
  The most uninteresting cloister of them all.
  

  The entrance to the church was, however, very nicely carved.

  

  And inside the church.

  

  Very well lit, and the windows are not glass.
  A piece of marble maybe, shown to illustrate the window material.
  

  No information about it, I assume marble. Found out subsequently, it is alabaster.

  A large room off the cloisters, again no idea what it was originally used for.

  

• Sat 15th Feb

  All getting rather samey. Another cathedral. Santa Domingo de La Caldaza.

  Imposing bell tower against a wonderful blue sky.

  

  

  A rather strange crypt.

  

  Choir photographed through iron railings -no entry.

  

  Decorated pillar.

  

  Another implausable story….

  Santo Domingo de la Calzada is also the site of the miracle of the “hanged innocent” a pilgrim wrongly accused of theft. The witnesses for his successful appeal, a pair of beheaded, supposedly cooked chickens are represented by their descendants, a pair of whom are kept at all times in the choir loft of the cathedral. Other descendants are kept in the local pilgrimage refuge.

  The rather small cage with a cockerel. Never found the chickens.

  

  Decided to return slowly through western France, hopefully find a few palaces, grand houses and maybe the odd castle……

• Sun 16th Feb
  Yesterday we drove to Lerma, looked interesting and the TIC is open every day all day, usually indicating an interesting place with lots to attract visitors. Although it was attractive, it seemed all there was to do was wander round and admire old buildings. However, they did suggest Covarrubias, which is where we went today. A really attractive village, with the Ex-Collegiate Church of St Cosmas and St Damian.
  The church.
  

  The cloister. Really nice ceiling.
  

  A picture, looks quite fun, a dog helping itself to a table of food, until you realise it is eating a severed human hand. Is this a Christian story I have missed?
  

  Robes from 16h century. Apparently survived moth free.

  

  The village was very nice to walk round on a warm sunny day.
  

  I don’t usually take pictures of rubbish bins, but then I’ve never seen one like this before.
  

  

  A somewhat Heath Robinson attachment to the back of some houses.
  

  A short drive away, the ruined monastery of San Pedro de Arlanza.

  

  

  

  

   

• Cont’d
  Desfiladero de La Yecla, a dramatic gorge with a surprisingly modest river running through it.
  The entrance from the car park. (And our overnight stop).
  

  

  

  

  It must have been really awkward building the walk. The sound of the river rushing down rapids echoing between the gorge was quite deafening.
  

  

  

  There were Griffin Vultures and Golden Eagles wheeling overhead. At the end of the gorge………

  

  Attempts to photograph real ones failed.

• Mon 17th Feb
  A long drive to just short of Irun, Spain but close to the French border.
  And, went via Idiazabal, and the splendid cheese we found last year. This time, same cheese, different shop, some drama as to whether we could go up a steep narrow road, but in fact it was fine, mainly because nothing came the other way.
  Stopped at a rather nice free Aire, which suddenly became very full with cars, almost certainly a funeral in the church adjacent to the Aire. Was a bit surreal, some way from a small village, I think everyone from the village must have been there.
• Tue 18th Feb.
  A long drive, through the awful sprawl of Biarritz and Bayonne, made worse by some major road works. Still, arrived at Mont-de-Marsan, and our selected vet, in time for Josie to have her rabies jab updated for another three years. Fortunate to find a vet who spoke excellent English, and had sufficient free time. The jab took less than 30 seconds, the preparation for it took a couple of minutes, filling in details on the labs computer system took about half an hour.
• Wed 19th Feb

  Ducal Chateau de Cadillac. Noted for its fireplaces. Less than half of them have survived.

  

  

  

  

  

  Its last use was as a womans prison. The cells, in the attic.

  

  The kitchen, in the basement. Another fireplace.

  

   

   

  

  The view from the palace entrance to the town square.