DISCOVER THE PAYS BASQUE

The Basque Country, or Euskal-herri in the Basque language, straddles a small corner of Spain and France. It isn’t marked on any maps other than their own, yet it is Europe’s oldest nation without having ever been a country! The Pays Basque is therefore defined as where the people speak Euskara, the Basque language, rather than a precise natural border.

Euskal-herri is comprised of 7 Provinces: 3 in France known collectively as Iparralde ("Northern side") which constitutes about 10% of the Pays Basque, and the remaining 90% being the 4 provinces in Spain known as Hegoalde ("Southern side").

Iparralde constitutes the North-Eastern part of the Basque Country and the Western part of the French department of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, with a population of 250,000 inhabiting an area of 3,100 km². These French provinces extend from the Atlantic Ocean to Béarn, and are limited to the north by the River Adour along a length of thirty kilometres and in the south by the French national border.

A popular tourist destination as a result of the spectacular beaches, this French region is distinct from neighbouring parts of either France or the southern Basque Country remaining largely agricultural over the centuries. The 3 French Basque Provinces are Labourd (Lapurdi) on the Atlantic ocean to the west where Biarritz is located (capital Ustaritz); Basse Navarre (Nafarroa Beherea), the largest province and located in the centre (capital Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port); and Soule (Zuberoa) to the east (capital Mauléon