Wintering in the Riviera: With Notes of Travel in Italy and France, and Practical Hints to Travellers — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Wintering in the Riviera: With Notes of Travel in Italy and France, and Practical Hints to Travellers
John Stuart Mill · en
About half way to Biarritz, a very elegant white stone villa in the
Moorish style is passed—the Villa Sophia. There is something very
unique in the appearance of this building, which is covered with
arabesques, inducing me to go out one day and take a rough sketch of
it. On approaching Bayonne, the road lies through a wood—I suppose,
a suburban park. Then on entering the town we see a long many–arched
stone bridge spanning the Adour,—here very wide,—and beyond it the
fortifications, built by Vauban. These may at one time have been
considered strong, but at the present day cannot be thought so, and
they are overlooked by neighbouring heights. The fort lacks the
picturesquely–imposing appearance of stone wall castles. A good deal
of historical interest attaches to Bayonne and its fortifications. The
town itself is not remarkable for much save its four bridges, crossing
very close to each other the river Nive, which here joins the Adour.
The cathedral, above seven hundred years old, is large and handsome,
and is in course of restoration. The spires (one of them only is
completed, the other being in course of completion) are very beautiful,
tapering gradually, with spirelets around; but the church is like too
many others abroad, rather hemmed in by the houses around.
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There are other good drives about Biarritz, and particularly to the
Bois de Boulogne and to the old historical maritime town of St. Jean
de Luz, about ten miles distant, and not far from the Spanish border.
It was here Louis XIV. had a residence and was married. His house, in
the French style, with square towers at the four corners, stands now in
the centre of the town upon the main street, and in its ground floor is
occupied with shops and cafés. St. Jean is also a bathing place, but is
not so popular, and is certainly not so attractive, as Biarritz.
There is a fine drive to Cambo, at the base of the Pyrenees, but during
the first part of the period of our stay at Biarritz the weather was
too cold to take it, and in the latter part the days were getting
rather too short, the distance being about eighteen miles.[48]
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