You leave Bidarray behind you along the Nive. Before long, the path climbs up between the hills. The Basque interior takes things at an easy pace: meadows, white houses with red shutters, and the occasional sheep.
This is an easy stage, around 17 kilometres in almost 6 hours. There are a few short climbs, but none of them stays steep for long. You go up and down through an undulating landscape with no big peaks. Towards the end, the route drops down to Espelette, the village of red peppers. In autumn, they hang in strings from the façades. You descend slightly more than you climb, so go easy on your knees on the downhills.