My original plan was more adventurous, but due to the combination of an earthquake and too much going on at home (and that does not mean work!), I never went to Chile as I had intended. However, I had very good reasons to escape over Easter. I recalled Saint-Jean Pied-de-Port in the French part of the Basque lands where I spent one day and half there ten years ago, and which I really had enjoyed, not the least because there are plenty of walking opportunities. With this in aim I booked a flight to Paris, but since the weather forecasts were not too promising for the first week, I took a roundabout way to Saint-Jean. When I landed in Paris, I immediately jumped on a train to Arles, which is about 100 km west of Marseilles and I stayed there for a three days. I then moved west and stopped by in Carcassonne. For the Easter weekend, I saw four cities in two days, and eventually on Easter Monday I arrived in Saint-Jean for five wonderful days. Then I traded mountains for the sea, and I got two sunny days in the Basque beach resort Saint-Jean-de-Luz. The last two days I spent in Paris, before it was time to fly home - the day before the volcanic ash stopped all flights.
As always, the trip resulted in too many pictures. Below is a summary of 44 pictures, and then there are six sub-sites: