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Interesting time to be flying to Russia.

Zugarramurdi From Espelette we drove across the border into Spain and onto Urdax/Urdazubi, one of the four villages of Xareta mentioned in post 275. While Undax is quite pretty, it is very small and there is basically nothing there except some 17th & 18th century houses that are very similar...

Don't know about converting it to AUD but for future reference, when making the initial booking put in a dummy first flight from somewhere in Aus to anywhere so that it is priced in AUD. When you phone to add other flights, cancel the dummy booking at the same time.

Currently in SW France/Basque country; pretty much everywhere else in France accepts cards, even for small purchases. But here, three times in as many days I've come across "cash only" or a minimum of EUR15 for CC purchases.

Espelette With a population of around 2,000 Espelette is about three times the size of Ainhoa. Unlike most of these small villages where everything is closed this tme of year, there were about 10 shops open, even at lunch time (most unusual for France). Espelette is the "pepper" capital of...

Xareta According to Wikipedia: Ainhoa and Sare, together with the two Spanish communes of Zugarramurdi and Urdazubi, form a cross-border territory, called Xareta. Straddling the border with Spain, it is a passage for the Way of St. James (Baztan way) from Bayonne to Pamplona. We visited all...

le Marché Quite a nice market in St-Jean but unfortunately a lot of fruit is out of season; I do miss the strawberries, rasberries, blueberries and blackberries that were everywhere, and at a good price, when we were in La Rochelle. Still, there is lots to like about this market...

Saint-Jean-de-Luz Situated about half way between Biarritz and the Spanish border, St-Jean-de-Luz has a population of around 15,000. While it is a fishing and pleasure port, it heavily relies on tourism and retirees. It's a very pretty place. Looking over the bay to St-Jean with La Rhune in...

We had always intended to head south as the weather got cooler so after Ainsa we spent a couple of weeks in Spain and Portugal. As this TR is about our 6 months in France I won't be covering those couple of weeks here. We returned to France by crossing the bridge from Irun to Hendaye thereby...

I agree there are sweet spots, but generally not at the time and place that suited me. While I have my own system for staying on top of expiring points, I've also reduced the number of programs I'm a member of.

I'm pleased to see you have been able to make Choice work for you. My experience has not been so good. I bought some points at 1.008 australian cents per point but found that in the places where I wanted to stay (in Australia) the amount I had paid for the required points worked out dearer than...

Ainsa

Heading east from Jaca towards Ainsa we were treated to a nice drive with some beautiful scenery:

What a fantastic loyalty program; I joined PGR around 20 years ago and was top tier for many years. It was my favourite program but following these latest enhancements I can't see any reason to choose one of their hotels other than when it is the lowest price in an area where I need to stay...

Life is like a sewer; what you get out of it depends on what you put into it. Tom Lehrer.

Some photos from around Jaca... It's been a long time since I've been in a bar with prices this good...

Jaca Jaca has a population of around 14,000. We found a nice new appartment in the old city and I was impressed with the architect's efforts to have it blend in with the existing buildings:

Heading down the Spainish side of the Pourtalet the scenery is quite different...

The summit of the Col du Pourtalet is at an elevation 1,794 metres. Immediately after crossing over the summit into Spain there is a small village with a couple of shops and basic cafe/restaurants... We stopped at this place for lunch, nothing special but reasonable prices and warm...

Col du Pourtalet 2 Of course, on the other side of the dam wall there is a lake and a ski resort... Continuing up the Pourtalet... After 28km we are approaching the summit...