Aquitaine, Bordeaux, Bayonne & France's Basque Country
By Kelby Carr
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Aquitaine, Bordeaux, Bayonne & France's Basque Country - Kelby Carr
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About The Authors
Kelby Hartson Carr and Michael Carr are a husband-and-wife writing and photography team. They have traveled extensively throughout France and northern Spain. The Carrs lived in the South of France for several months with their daughter Gabrielle, then one year old, while researching this book. Kelby's writing has appeared in newspapers and magazines, and she is the editor of About.com's France for Visitors website. Michael's photography has appeared in magazines, and he is the editor of About.com's Digital Cameras site.
To Gabrielle, for being such an amazing, tolerant and entertaining travel companion (especially for the age of one).
Introduction
History
Geography
Climate
Flora & Fauna
Economy
People & Culture
Cathedrals & Abbeys
Cathar Country
Cuisine & Wine
Nudism
Getting There
By Air
By Train
Should You Get A Rail Pass?
By Bus
By Car
Suggested Itineraries
Whirlwind City Tour
Pyrenees Roadtrip
When To Go
Customs
Costs
Holidays
Using This Book
Aquitaine
Introduction
Wine Tourism
Thalassotherapy In The Aquitane
Bordeaux
Perigueux
Agen
History & Geography
Getting Around
Sightseeing
Shopping
Adventures
On Foot
On Horseback
On Water
On Wheels
Eco-Tourism
Where to Stay
Bordeaux
Perigueux
Agen
Where to Eat
Bordeaux
Perigueux
Agen
Bayonne & the Basque Country
Biarritz
St-Jean-De-Luz
Pau
History & Geography
Getting Around
Sightseeing
Shopping
Adventures
On Foot
On Horseback
On Water
On Wheels
On Snow
In The Air
Eco-Tourism
Where to Stay
Bayonne
Biarritz
Saint-Jean-De-Luz
Pau
Where to Eat
Bayonne
Biarritz
Saint-Jean-De-Luz
Pau
Information Sources
Appendix
Suggested Reading
Language
French
Basics & Emergencies
Getting Around
Sightseeing & Shopping
Adventures
Lodging
Dining
Spanish
Basics & Emergencies
Getting Around
Sightseeing & Shopping
Lodging
Dining
Catalan
Basics & Emergencies
Basque
Basics & Emergencies
Introduction
In Southwest France and the Spanish Pyrenees, sunkissed rooftops blaze a burnt orange. There are sweeping vistas of both mountains and sea. The food is robust, and the wines don't mess around. The narrow streets of the medieval fortified city of Carcassonne are lined with armored knights advertising daily specials at the cafés. World-renowned vineyards dot the landscape in Bordeaux, the most influential wine region in the world. The distinguished university city of Toulouse is regarded as the best place to live by the French themselves. At Cap d'Agde, also known as Naked City and the world's Mecca of nudism, visitors can bank, shop or beachcomb in the buff. Tourists can climb to the eerie ruins at Montsegur, where the Cathar religious sect made a lengthy stand against 10,000 Crusaders before voluntarily marching to their fiery deaths rather than renouncing their spiritual beliefs.
This area boasts more days of sunshine than most of Europe (over 300 sunny days a year on average in Montpellier, for instance), and features more parkland than much of France – including more than 200,000 acres in Pyrenees National Park alone. Tourists delight in the vast selection of mountain-climbing destinations, ski resorts, spa villages, Gallo-Roman ruins and prehistoric cave paintings. Waterways here include rivers, canals, streams, the Gulf of Gascony, the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
For those accustomed to the Parisian way of life, this diverse and exotic culture seems like another world. That is almost true. This corner of France was independent for many centuries before being absorbed into the rest of the country, and that fierce sense of autonomy remains strong to this day. There is the southwest of France, and then there is the rest of France, or so the natives vehemently maintain, usually with a contemptuous roll of the eyes and purse of the lips.
Indeed, many in the Southwest of France feel more connected with their Spanish neighbors to the south than their Parisian neighbors to the north. The bold peaks of the Pyrenees mountains form a natural border connecting France and Spain. The first time we set foot in this area, our Carcassonne cab driver spoke French with a noticeably rolling Spanish R instead of the typical throaty French hhhhr pronunciation.
On the Spanish side of the range, Catelonia is marked by breathtaking cliffs, expansive beaches and the thriving, hip seaside city of Barcelona. The people here, too, exhibit a fiercely independent spirit and have sought to separate from the rest of Spain. In the Navarre region, men taunt large, dangerous animals for Pamplona's annual Running of the Bulls. The Pyrenees mountains reach their highest peaks in the Aragon region.
One of the advantages to visiting Southwest France and the Spanish Pyrenees region is that tourists have just begun to discover its riches. This means many wonderful destinations have yet to be overrun by gaping tourists (with a few exceptions, Carcassonne and Barcelona the most notable), and prices remain delightfully reasonable.
History
From cavemen to Concorde airplanes, this area has a varied, infinitely interesting and at times gruesome history. Some of the earliest remnants of prehistoric man are present here in cave paintings, many of which are well-preserved, extensive and open for tours.
Julius Caesar conquered Gaul and this area around 50 BC. That was just the beginning of a string of national identities for various areas of Southwest France and the Spanish Pyrenees Mountain regions, including being conquered by the Visigoths and later being ruled by the Franks around the year 500 AD. The Emperor Charlemagne was crowned in 800 and, soon after, took control of much of the Pyrenees region. It repeatedly changed hands between counts, dukes and other regional leaders.
When Eleanor of Aquitaine married the future English King Henry ee, this led to British rule of this area for around three centuries before it became part of France.
Much of Southwest France was not even part of France as recently as 1453, the end of the Hundred Year's War, when England surrendered all of its French territory, except Calais.
During the Middle Ages, this region was the epicenter for persecution of the Cathars, a group that vocally and publicly questioned the practices of the Catholic Church and was ultimately wiped out.
Throughout history, there are many instances in which France and Spain warred with one another, and other times when they were allied against