Arzacq-Arraziguet

The Place de la Republique is a classic bastide central square with stone arcades on all sides. The covered market area, the cafes under the arcades, and the scale of the square give Arzacq a dignity that belies its small population. The weekly market fills the square with local produce. Sit at a cafe under the arcades, order a coffee, and watch the town go about its morning business. Bastide squares were designed for exactly this kind of civic life, and 700 years later, they still deliver.

You are entering the production area for jambon de Bayonne, one of the great cured hams of France. The pigs are raised on the farms surrounding Arzacq and the ham is cured using salt from the Adour river basin. It is served thinly sliced as a starter or in salads, and it is superb. The restaurants in Arzacq serve it alongside the Gascon and Bearnaise dishes that characterise this transitional zone between two culinary traditions. Try a plate of jambon with melon if the season allows.

Arzacq sits at the boundary between the Gers (Gascony) and the Pyrenees-Atlantiques (Bearn). The landscape, the architecture, and the food begin to shift. The Bearn is greener, hillier, and more mountainous. The stone buildings are greyer. The cooking starts to feature piperade (Basque peppers and tomatoes with eggs), garbure with more emphasis on the pork, and the wines of Jurancon and Madiran. You are leaving the easy Gascon plains and approaching the Pyrenees. The walk is about to get harder

Each day now, the Pyrenees are larger on the southern horizon. From Arzacq on a clear afternoon, the snow-capped peaks are visible, a wall of mountains stretching from east to west. In a few days you will be at the foot of those mountains in Navarrenx and Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. The anticipation of the Pyrenees crossing, and of Spain beyond, begins to build in earnest here.