French Basque Country: coast and hill villages

Route description

Bayonne’s riverside houses and Gothic cathedral are a good start; try the ham and the chocolate. Biarritz follows along the coast with its lighthouse, surf beaches and the Rocher de la Vierge, then Saint-Jean-de-Luz, where Louis XIV married in 1660.

Across the bay, the Corniche Basque road runs from Socoa to Hendaye above folded flysch cliffs. Turn inland to the Col de Saint-Ignace and take the wooden rack railway up La Rhune for the view over the coast and the Pyrenees.

Sare, Ainhoa and Espelette are Basque villages of white houses with red or green shutters; in autumn Espelette’s façades are hung with drying red peppers. The D918 continues through Cambo-les-Bains and the Nive valley to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, the walled town where many pilgrims start the Camino over the Pyrenees.

The coast is crowded in August and parking in Biarritz and Saint-Jean-de-Luz is difficult for large vehicles. Inland villages have small aires, and the Irouléguy vineyards around Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port are worth a detour.