[Illustration:  SCENE 2.—­THE ANCIENT STEED GREW YOUNG ONCE MORE.]

[Illustration:  SCENE 3.—­WHO’S MY DRIVER?]

The favourite of the short drives is known as the “Tour des Lacs.”  It embraces the prettiest country in the vicinity, and the whole distance is about six miles.  We found it most pleasant to start, after lunch, from the Place de la Mairie, turning up the Rue Gambetta past the market and on to the “Falaises,” where the sea-breeze blows fresh and free.  Keeping to the right where the road forks, the “abattoir” was soon left behind and the Villa Marbella reached; we then curved round “Lac Chabiague,” and ascending slightly between fields gay with the “fleur des frontieres” [Footnote:  A lovely blue flower, something like a gentian.] and the wild daphne, we dipped again slightly to the point where the road to St. Jean de Luz forks to the right.  Bearing to the left between hedges overgrown with sarsaparilla, and entering a shady lane, a few minutes sufficed for us to reach the “Bois de Boulogne,” where the road skirts the Lake Mouriscot, and passes beside many splendid clumps of the Osmunda regalis fern.  The lake is very deep and full of fish; but bathing is certainly not advisable, as there is a great quantity of reeds and weeds all round the water’s edge.

Leaving the pleasant woods, we emerged on to the Route Imperiale—­the direct road from the Negresse station (on the main line to Spain) to Biarritz—­and following it as far as the metals, we turned to the left up the Irun-Bayonne route.  This, however, was not our road for long, as we took the first turning on the left-hand side up a pretty lane, which brought Lake Marion into full view.  The other end of the lane joins the “Route Imperiale” again; which, leading in turn past the cemetery, the parish church, and the terminus of the “steam tram-line,” enters the town near the International Bank.

It will be noticed that there are several ways of reaching Bayonne.  The cheapest and most expeditious, for marketing or other business purposes, is by the narrow-gauge railway, with its curious double carriages, one above the other.  By driving the two miles to the Negresse station, and catching the express from Spain, is another way, but one not recommended to anybody but travellers [Footnote:  Travellers for the Pau line have to change at Bayonne, consequently it is simpler for them to drive the five miles from Biarritz direct to Bayonne, than drive two to the Negresse station, with the necessity of changing ten minutes after entering the train.] going to stations on the line between Bayonne and Paris.  Of the three routes for driving we have already mentioned the most frequented one—­at the commencement of the chapter; from the Negresse station by the Bayonne-Irun road is another; and the last and prettiest passes behind the Villa Eugenie almost to the lighthouse, but there branches off to the right past the Chambre d’Amour inn, to the pine-woods near La Barre,