# SW France - A tour in the Pyrenees : between Béarn and Soule



## Giri (Jan 28, 2005)

To be precise, we won't visit Béarn this time as we'll just travel through Labourd (Lapurdi in Basque) and the southern part of the Landes (little entities named Gosse, Orthe, ...).










We'll begin this quick tour in the town of Bayonne (May 2010). I had posted numerous pics of Bayonne on this board, see my signature.

The Adour river in Bayonne :



















When in Bayonne, I generally go to the Elkar bookshop. It used to be a great regionalist shop but it's now more or less in the hands of the Spanish Basques who have transformed it into a fascinating yet menacing nationalist place. Not speaking Basque is a bit dangerous but women are pretty. Don't dare claim Bayonne is a Gascon town ! Nevermind.

Some streets :




























Crossing the Nive river to reach the bookshop.



















After ill-considered purchases, I decided to head towards deep Labourd. Bassussarry is a former village in the suburbs of Bayonne : here ended the Gascon language.










The landscape is dominated by La Rhune (Larrun in Basque) :










Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle : I've always found that the green colour of the landscapes allied to the pristine white house façades was somehow obsessive. 





































Deep Labourd around Souraïde (Zuraide in Basque).



















Espelette (Ezpeleta in Basque) :




























On the road to Cambo (Kanbo in Basque) :



















I somehow bypassed Cambo as I missed the centre-town ...



















Urcuray (Urkoi in Basque) : white and red are making me blind ! 










I also bypassed Hasparren ...










... and eventually reached Briscous (Beskoitze in Basque) a suburb of Bayonne.










I decided to head North ... as I had missed the road heading West. To keep my dignity, I eventually convinced myself that visiting the southern Landes would be ideal. Lahonce (Lehuntze in Basque) is the last Basque-speaking village : it dominated the Adour valley. North of the river are Gascon lands. I feel good. A good wind, I'm alone watching the mighty river.




























Urcuit (Urketa in Basque) :










And we are : I've crossed the river (I should have taken a pic) and I'm in the Landes. No ethnic character means lame architecture. The Basques were lucky to forge a whole romantic universe about themselves : the Landes were not included and consequently, it's becoming a shithole despite both shores of the Adour river sharing a not so distant past.










Biarrotte :



















Sainte-Marie-de-Gosse : quite frankly I don't think foreign people are able to detect a difference between the Basque Country and the Landes except that the Landes are not as Disney World-like as the Basque Country.




























Saint-Etienne-d'Orthe :



















The Landes emulates the Basque Country up to frontons.










Bélus :










Cagnotte :



















This little tour ends in Hastingues : I'll never be able to get a pic of this village without backlighting.


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