Food Tours · Tour

An Affineur, the 1660 Macaron, and Oysters in Les Halles

Nine hours across the border and back, private, in an air-conditioned minivan with hotel pick-up. The Basque Country runs on both sides of the Bidasoa, and this day is about what the French half does differently. At Saint-Jean-de-Luz you meet an affineur, which is a trade with no real English word: not the person who makes the cheese but the one who receives it and ages it, turning and washing and waiting until each piece reaches the point where it should be sold. You taste a selection he has finished himself, with a red from Irouleguy, the small Basque appellation in the Pyrenean foothills. The town is a fishing port with a bay in front of it, and the pastry shop on the main street created the macaron in 1660, at the same period a local corsair was taking more than a hundred British, Dutch and Spanish ships out of these waters. The church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste has galleried oak balconies and model ships hanging from the ceiling, left by people who had reason to be grateful to the sea. Biarritz next: the promenade, the grand hotels, the 44-metre lighthouse, and the beach where surfing entered Europe in the mid-1950s. In the Les Halles market you get France at its most itself, cheese, charcuterie, bread and pastry, and at the best counter in the hall, Arcachon oysters, prawns and escargots with a white Bordeaux. The day ends back in Spain at Hondarribia, a walled medieval town above a fishing quarter the New York Times has singled out for its cooking, where you eat pintxos at one of the most decorated bars in the area and settle the argument about which side of the border cooks better. Private, up to eight guests, guided in English or Spanish. Food and drink through the day are included, with wine, beer or cider at the meals. Bring your passport or EU identity card. Wheelchair accessibility can be arranged at extra cost. The old town of Hondarribia is cobbled and steep, so leave the heels behind.