Bayonne Bayonne Bayonne

Due to some bank holiday, or some kind of strike (not sure which), we stayed in Bayonne all last weekend, and due to the gale force nine on Monday, we stayed then too.  This is how I posted the brief message on Monday. 

Last Saturday, I had a classic French role play experience (like the ones we used to do for French GCSE).  Raj and I were trying to navigate the walk to Carrefour (big supermarket), as we’d missed the car ride we were supposed to get from the Seamen’s Club at 6pm (due to Raj spending too long showering and applying his ‘perfume’, insisting the car wouldn’t leave until 7pm).  I didn’t really mind, as we could walk there pretty easily in about thirty or forty minutes.  So, I spoke French to some strangers sitting in their garden and received directions (a pied) to get to the Carrefour.  I actually understood the directions, so decided at that moment that I could speak enough French to get by as a tourist. 

Then, I realised when we were at Carrefour that my previous thought was complete crap and my French had suddenly all been forgotten in a moment of panic.  I was speaking in French to a couple of ladies at the reception stand (at the shopping centre), trying to ask if it was possible to get a taxi from where we were.  They understood that and tried to call some numbers, but to no avail.  I was trying to explain that I wanted to do my shopping, then go to McDonalds (for Raj and the chief, not me), then get a taxi back to the port to get back on the boat.  It was a mess, and two more people came over who were equally unable to sort it all out.  At one point they were saying there was a taxi outside, but I was obviously trying to get across that I didn’t want it now.  They still seemed unable to understand despite me saying that I wanted the taxi at about 8:30pm. So eventually I just had to tell them not to worry and thanks for their help.  Incidentally, I just remembered that “later” in French is “plus tard”.

After Raj had ordered a huge bag of McDonalds for himself and the chief (it came to over 40 Euros), we rang someone on our ship who gave us a taxi number, so I then had to call them and speak in French to ask for a taxi.  It was funny as I rang, and asked in French if they spoke English.  They said a little, but then I spoke French anyway.  They must have thought I was a bit nuts.  Anyway, they said they weren’t doing taxis at that late hour (it was only about 8:30pm or 9 by then) and gave me another number.  I swear I got all the French numbers correct, but then when we rang it the number didn’t work.  I think I didn’t put the correct dialling code into my phone though (as had used Raj’s phone for the previous call before the battery ran flat which is not a UK phone – don’t know if it makes a difference or not).  Due to the amount of confusing French conversations I’d had already, I didn’t want to have a further conversation with the other taxi people, so we decided to walk all the way back from Carrefour carrying the rather stupid amount of heavy things that Raj had bought.  He was least keen on this idea so I offered to carry the heaviest bits.  So, on one shoulder I had 12 kg of coke (for the Chief), and on the other arm, another 8kg of other drinks.  After about one of the four or so kilometres we had to walk, it had got very tiring.  We pushed on though, until eventually I realised (after about 2km) that I couldn’t see Raj behind me anymore.  So, I dumped all the stuff on the pavement, and waited for him.  He turned up eventually, and then he spoke to a man in the street who just so happened to speak English (nobody in Bayonne seems to speak English).  In fact, his mother was American and he spent quite a bit of time in the UK every year, so he spoke exceptional English, but was born in France so was bilingual – however there was a slightly detectable American accent to his English.  He spoke to a couple of taxi companies in French and they said the same as before, that they could not help at that time. 

So, he very kindly offered us a lift back to the ship in his car.  His girlfriend, who was from Lithuania, came along for the ride too.  We were so thankful, and asked them if they wanted to come on board the ship to see what it was like.  They seemed excited about that as they’d never seen what life is like on a working ship, so they agreed and they came aboard and saw all the ship (except the bridge as we didn’t want to disturb the captain on his watch).  Then we had a beer with them on ship and the Chief joined us too.  It turned out that the guy was the lead singer of some Heavy Metal band named “Gojira” (who are on YouTube and have records released) who have toured England and other countries in Europe.  The Chief had heard of them as he is Polish, and they had done a few gigs in the city next to his in Poland. 

It was great to talk to new people and we were so thankful that they saved us by giving us the lift. 

On Tuesday, the ship was loaded and we left Bayonne.

Today (Friday), we were in Carino again.  I managed to fit in a run after finishing work.  It was fantastic to run somewhere with such a breathtaking shore line.  It’s a bit like Tuscany crossed with a seafront, with a little bit of a small island shore feel too.  Difficult to put into words, but beautiful to look at.  I ran across the beach (eyeing the yachts moored a bit further out and wishing I was there on one) and up a bit of one of the very steep hills, before returning to have dinner on the ship.  It was brief, but relaxing and satisfying.

I’ve attached a photo of a great morning sun when from when we were in La Coruna last week.  I went to check the fuel tank level on the Emergency generator (which requires going outside – a luxury for an Engineer), and noticed how cool the background was, so took the opportunity to capture it.  Do forgive the point and shoot, it’s doing its best, but can’t really match up to the Nikon for quality and colour etc.

I’ll attached all the photos intended when I get a chance to use the internet next.