Bayonne & Traditional Basque Villages
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Port
Hendaye (Biarritz), France
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Activity Level
Moderate Activity
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Excursion Type
Information Not Currently Available
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Wheelchair Accessible
No
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Starting At (prices in USD)
$120
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Minimum Age
Information Not Currently Available
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Duration
4½ Days
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Meals Included
Meals not included
A panoramic drive takes you through traditional villages of the Basque region.
Ascain, built on the foothills of La Rhune and beside the Nivelle River, is a picturesque village with a clutch of beautiful 17th-century homes.
The village of Sare, surrounded by superb Basque farmhouses, lies in the shadow of Rhune Mountain and in the heart of an old smuggling region.
You will enjoy a 30-minute stop at the village of Aïnhoa, almost totally destroyed by the Spaniards in 1629. Today’s houses were rebuilt during the 17th and 18th centuries. The finest houses built in the Labourd style feature the date of construction and the name of the owners engraved on the lintel above the doorway.
Espelette, with its unusual, narrow, winding main street, is a village famous for pottoks -- Basque mountain ponies -- and for its red pimientos used extensively in Basque cuisine.
Bayonne, perched at the confluence of the Nive and Adour Rivers, is steeped in history. It began life as a Roman garrison. Medieval Bayonne developed on the same site, bearing the Coats of Arms of both France and England -- the product of the marriage between Alienor of Aquitaine and Henry Plantagenet. Their son, Richard the Lion Heart, often visited Bayonne and eventually married a Basque princess from Navarre.
You will enjoy walking along the narrow pedestrian streets of the Old Town -- they are lined with 18th-century homes. And, you will be delighted to know that Bayonne’s oldest gourmet tradition is chocolate. Portuguese Jews introduced a secret technique of chocolate-making in the 16th century, and Bayonne was thus the first town in France fortunate enough to succumb to the ‘devil’s drink.’
Please note: Wear comfortable walking shoes.