A winter Sunday in Lapurdi: two villages of red houses and a castle on the cliff.

From November to March the La Rhune train does not run and the French Basque coast empties. It is a good time for the inland villages of Lapurdi: Ainhoa, a single street of Labourd houses from the 17th and 18th centuries, and Espelette, the pepper village, without the summer queues. You eat at the Euzkadi, the house run by the same family since 1873, and in the afternoon you go down to Hendaye to see inside the castle-observatory that Viollet-le-Duc designed for the explorer Antoine d'Abbadie.

The day, hour by hour

9:00 · Departure. From Pamplona, the Baztan and the Dantxarinea pass put you in Ainhoa in a little over an hour. From San Sebastián, via Irun, Urrugne and Sare, about 45 minutes.

10:15 · Ainhoa and Espelette. Ainhoa can be seen in an hour: the main street of half-timbered houses painted red or green with carved lintels. Look for the one at the Maison Gorritia, dated 1662. Espelette is ten kilometres away. There, the tower of the barons' castle, now the town hall and tourist office, and the church of Saint-Étienne, with painted ceilings from the 17th century. Until December you will still see façades with peppers drying: the harvest runs from August to December.

12:30 · Lunch at the Euzkadi. At 285 Karrika Nagusia, next to the pelota court. On Sundays it serves lunch but not dinner; closed Monday and Tuesday. Book by phone, on +33 5 59 93 91 88.

15:30 · Abbadia castle. Half an hour to the Route de la Corniche, in Hendaye. From 1 November to 22 December and from 27 January to 31 March it opens Tuesday to Sunday from 14:00 to 18:00, with a guided visit at 14:30 and a self-guided one from 15:30 to 17:00. Inside, the observatory and the rooms with an Ethiopian theme, the Jerusalem room and the Arab salon. Booking is compulsory; rucksacks and pushchairs are not allowed in, and there is a cloakroom.

17:15 · Return. Along the corniche to Hendaye and Irun: in San Sebastián in half an hour. To Pamplona, by motorway, an hour and a quarter.

What to order at the Euzkadi

Inland Basque cooking with local produce and Espelette pepper, protected by designation of origin since 2000, in almost everything. The house menu highlights Banka trout, milk-fed lamb and the Ibaïama Basque pork from the Ospital house. If it is on the menu, the veal axoa.

In January, with children or on a dry day

From 5 to 26 January the castle is closed: swap the afternoon for the old town and harbour of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, twenty minutes from Espelette, with the church of Louis XIV's wedding. With children, the 50-minute guided visit in French drags: choose the self-guided one in the afternoon. On a dry day with the urge to walk, skip the castle and walk a stretch of the coastal path from Saint-Jean-de-Luz. With a dog, the villages are no problem; at the castle animals are not admitted, not even in the park.