Côte des Basques

The Côte des Basques (Basque Coast), the continuation of the Côte d'Argent, runs southwest for some 35km/22mi from Biarritz to Hendaye. Beyond the Spanish frontier it extends as far as San Sebastián. The two principal resorts on this stretch of coast are Biarritz and St-Jean-de-Luz, which, like the inland towns and villages though to a lesser degree, show distinctively Basque traditions, reflected both in place-names and in the local way of life.

The Basques, who call themselves Euskaldunak in their own very distinctive language, live on both sides of the Pyrenees, some 200,000 of them in France and just under two million in Spain. Although the Spanish Basques have long fought stubbornly for self-government, it is only in the 1980s that unrest has begun to make itself felt on the French side, though on a much smaller scale than in Spain. All over the Basque territory there is now a rapidly increasing interest in Basque culture and cultural activities. Basque dramatic and musical groups, language schools and pelota schools are springing up all over the place, and the number of local festivals has increased: a great and growing concern with Basque traditions is evident everywhere.

The Basque national sport is pelota or its variant, cesta punta. There are different ways of playing, but the essence of the game is to strike the ball against the pelota wall (fronton) with the bare hand or a special kind of curved bat and catch it on its return.

Euskadi is the land of the Euskaldunak (the Basque-speakers), and it is their language that binds the Basques together. There probably never was a separate Basque state. The origins of the Basques are the subject of controversy. It is supposed that the French Basques came from beyond the Pyrenees and that those who settled in the plain became assimilated with the local inhabitants, while the mountain Basques clung to their cultural heritage. The origin of the Basque language, which is non-Indo-European, is also uncertain.