A walled city at the foot of the Pyrenees

Pamplona, Iruña in Basque, is the capital of Navarre and the first city on the French Way of the Camino de Santiago after the Pyrenees. Pilgrims still enter through the Portal de Francia, a sixteenth-century gate in ramparts that survive along the northern and eastern edges of the old town. Below the walls the River Arga loops through parkland; above them lie three medieval boroughs that were united into a single city only in 1423.

For nine days from 6 July the city belongs to San Fermín. The festival opens at noon with a rocket fired from the town hall balcony, and from the following day the bulls run each morning at eight from the Santo Domingo corrals to the bullring. For the rest of the year Pamplona is a calm, green university city of around 200,000 people, compact enough to cross on foot and with an evening routine built around the bar counter.

The cooking of Navarre is the other draw. The region grows white asparagus, artichokes and the piquillo peppers of Lodosa, and the bars of Calle Estafeta and Calle San Nicolás turn them into pintxos alongside grilled chistorra sausage. Order a glass of Navarra rosado with them, and finish the evening with pacharán, the local sloe liqueur.