Paris1972-Versailles2003

Today, I like to tell you about a very famous city and a glorious city and one very popular with the French and visitors coming more and more to it. I have passed many times by it always bypassing it until one day did made a road warrior trail quick visit , really needs more time but will be back, eventually, So much to see in my belle France, time is of th essence, This post will be in my black and white series, no pictures, See my post on the cathedral, Therefore, here is my take on this is Bayonne !!! Hope you enjoy the post as I.

The City of Bayonne, or Baiona in Basque, is located in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department 64, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of my belle France. The town is part of the Basque province of Labourd. It is located at the intersection of the A63 (Bordeaux-Spain) and A64 (towards Pau, Tarbes, and Toulouse) autoroutes. The city is served by three interchanges. Two of them are for the A63: exit 6 (Bayonne Nord) serves the northern districts of Bayonne but also provides quick access to the city center, while exit 5 (Bayonne Sud) provides access from the south and also serves Anglet. The third exit is for the A64 via the Mousserolles interchange exit 1, Bayonne-Mousserolles. it joins the district of the same name but also serves the neighboring towns of Mouguerre and Saint-Pierre-d’Irube. Bayonne is crossed by the D810 Paris to Hendaye. The D817 connects Bayonne to Toulouse. The City has several bridges such as those coming from upstream, on the Adour river, we find the A63 bridge (Viaduc Hubert Touya), then the Saint-Frédéric bridge over which the D 810 passes, the Charles Vaillant bridge which replaced the Eiffel bridge or iron bridge, the Saint-Esprit bridge and finally, the Henri Grenet bridge (or Red Bridge). From upstream to downstream, the Nive river is crossed by the A63 bridge, the Pont Blanc, the railway bridge, the Pont du Labourd (D 810), the Genie bridges (or Military bridge), Pannecau, Marengo, leading to the market halls, and Mayou. The Pannecau bridge, long called the Bertaco bridge, was rebuilt in masonry under Napoleon III

The center of Bayonne is characterized by its medieval urban planning, marked by the layout of the streets, the survival of many building remains (fortifications, cathedral, cloister, cellars) and by the economic importance of the waterways throughout its history. The period from the 16C to the 19C saw the construction of many noble residences, often founded by members of the corporations, very active in Bayonne, and testifying to the vitality of the city and its commercial and port activity. Some of the things to see here other than the cathedral, me think (see post) are the The 11C Château-Vieux built by the Viscounts of Labourd. It was here that the ransom of Francis I, prisoner of Charles V in Madrid after being captured at the Battle of Pavia in 1525, was gathered. Du Guesclin was held prisoner there while awaiting payment of a ransom . The castle has hosted many distinguished guests such as Louis XI, Francis I, Charles IX and Louis XIV. It is now occupied by the 1st Parachute Regiment of the Marine Infantry. The Château-Neuf was built under Charles VII, at the end of the 15C, on old walls from the 13C. The residence known as Marrac, currently known as “Château de Marracq”, was purchased in May 1808 by Napoleon I from his personal funds. It was built at the beginning of the 18C by Marie-Anne de Neubourg. The complex formed by the citadel, renamed in 1999 Citadelle Général-Georges-Bergé, and the fortifications, rises to the north of the Adour river, on a hill overlooking the Saint-Esprit district. It is a fortified structure designed by Vauban in 1680 and built at the end of the 17C, at the request of Louis XIV. The whole is pierced by seven doors, including the Porte d’Espagne, the Porte de Mousserolles and the postern. The Church Saint-Esprit, rue Hugues, was built on the foundations of a Romanesque priory, some elements of which remain in the current building. The Church Saint-Étienne, avenue du 14 avril 1814, attested from the 12C, presents parts from the 15C and especially from the 19C because it suffered greatly during the siege of Bayonne and the battle of 14 April 1814, the English having established themselves there. The Church Saint-André , rue des Lisses, built in neo-Gothic style during the reign of Napoleon III, dominates the Petit-Bayonne district. It houses two remarkable works: The Assumption by Léon Bonnat and an organ.

A bit of history I like (condense) tell us that at the time of the end of the Western Roman Empire (476), Novempopulania had been under the domination of the Visigoths of the Kingdom of Toulouse for several decades. In 507, it came under the domination of the Franks of Clovis, at the origin of the Merovingian dynasty. Around 600, the Duchy of Vasconia was established, whose territory corresponded approximately to that of the province of Novempopulania, later called the Duchy of Gascony. When the Viscountcy of Labourd was created in 1023, Bayonne became its capital. The history of the city itself begins in 1056, when Raymond II the Younger, Bishop of Bazas, was given the task of rebuilding the Church of Bayonne. In 1023, Bayonne was the capital of Labourd, and in the 12C it expanded towards and beyond the Nive river. It was part of the Duchy of Aquitaine from the 10C. However, in the 12C, Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine, after having married the King of France, then having been repudiated, married in 1152 Henry Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine and Duke of Normandy, who became King of England in 1154. Although the Duchy of Aquitaine remained a fief of the Kingdom of France, it was closely linked to the destiny of the Kingdom of England for the next three centuries, until its reconquest at the end of the Hundred Years’ War (Bayonne was taken in 1451, Bordeaux in 1453). It was separated from the Viscountcy of Labourd in 1177 by Richard the Lionheart. It was Dunois, Joan of Arc’s companion in arms in 1429-1430, who captured the city on August 20, 1451, by the Crown of France, at the end of the Hundred Years’ War. In 1523, at the beginning of the Sixth Italian War, which pitted Francis I against Charles V, Emperor, head of the House of Habsburg, King of Castile and Aragon, Marshal de Lautrec forced, through heroic resistance, the Spanish troops of Philibert de Chalon to lift the siege of Bayonne. The course of the Adour was modified in 1578 under the direction of Louis de Foix, and the river, finding its former mouth, restored the activity lost for more than a hundred years to the port of Bayonne. Vauban, commissioned by Louis XIV to fortify the city, as well as many strongholds of the kingdom, added a citadel built on an eminence overlooking the district of San Espirit deou Cap do Pount. During the 18-19C, the port of Bayonne also participated in the slave trade. This traffic is less than in the other ports on the Atlantic coast (Nantes, Bordeaux, La Rochelle), but from 1742 to 1826 there were seventeen shipments from Bayonne by Africans deported to the Antilles, notably to Santo Domingo (currently share by the Dominican Republic and Haiti), the main French colony in tropical America at that time. After the fall of Louis XVI on August 10, 1792, and the transition to the Republic by September 21, Bayonne was renamed “Port-de-la-Montagne” After the arrival in power of Napoleon Bonaparte by November 1799, Bayonne became the capital of one of the five districts created in the Basses-Pyrénées in 1800. The concordat signed with the Pope in 1801, after eight years of revolutionary dechristianization, established Bayonne, and not Pau, as the episcopal seat. of the Basses-Pyrénées. In 1814, while the French army was retreating on all fronts, the siege of Bayonne took place by the Anglo-Spanish coalition commanded by Wellington. This siege resulted in the surrender of the French troops of Marshal Soult on May 5, 1814 (Napoleon having abdicated on April 12 at Fontainebleau). The Bayonnais who were mobilizable from August 3, 1914 participated in the Great War or WWI mainly in the 49th Infantry Regiment and in its reserve unit, the 249th Infantry Regiment, which were engaged in particular at the Chemin des Dames in 1917, more particularly on the Craonne plateau. A commitment center for foreign volunteers was created in August 1914. Many nationalities were represented there, in particular Spanish, Portuguese, Czechs and Poles. During WWII, Bayonne was occupied from June 27, 1940 to August 23, 1944 by the Third SS Armored Division (Totenkopf). On August 21, 1944, after blowing up around twenty ships in the port, the nazis troops withdrew.

The City of Bayonne on its heritage : https://www.bayonne.fr/cest-a-bayonne/culture/histoire-et-patrimoines/une-ville-dart-et-dhistoire

The Bayonne tourist office on its heritage: https://www.visitbayonne.com/en/discover/

The local Pays Basque tourist office on the heritage of Bayonne : https://www.en-pays-basque.fr/en/territory-and-destination/basque-coast/bayonne/

The Pyrénées-Atlantiques dept 64 tourist office on Bayonne : https://www.tourisme64.com/en/our-destinations/welcome-to-the-basque-country/bayonne/

The Nouvelle Aquitaine regional tourist office on Bayonne : https://www.nouvelle-aquitaine-tourisme.com/en/biarritz-pays-basque/bayonne-is-a-definite-must-stop

There you go folks, Bayonne is it. A wonderful City full of life ambiance , architecture, history and a lot more ; one of the cities of France a must to visit,me think, Again, hope you enjoy the post on this is Bayonne !!! as I

And remember, happy travels , good health and many cheers to all !!!