IF you’ve never ventured to the deep South of France, the Basque Country and the Béarn, you have not only missed out on one of its most beautiful départements, but passed on one of its most vibrant living cultures. The beach resorts on the Atlantic coast, Biarritz and St Jean de Luz may be riding a new wave of cool thanks to the surf, but they are only the hors-d’oeuvre to the banquet inland.
Five minutes off the coastal motorway and you find yourself running over emerald hills on empty roads, passing red-roofed, picture-postcard villages or grand but eerily deserted spa towns still dreaming of their heyday in the belle époque. Farther inland lies the medieval gem of Salies de Béarn, the Roman mosaics at Sorde L’Abbaye and Romanesque pilgrim churches on the roads to Santiago de Compostela notably at Sauveterre de Beéarn and L’Hoôpital St Blaizse.
The pastures are dotted with long-haired mountain sheep, lyre-horned cows wearing bells and heavy chestnut horses descended from the pottocks, the wild ponies of the Pyrenees. You’re never quite sure which climate you are in, Alpine or Mediterranean, because palm trees and oleanders flourish outside the farmhouses, but the snow-capped peaks of Europe’s youngest and least-tamed mountains always gleam on your horizon.
At this time of year, the idling tourist is likely to be carved up by local drivers impatient to get up to the skiresorts for a morning’s snowboarding before lunch.
Now that Ryanair runs daily flights to Biarritz and to the Béarnais capital, Pau, and frequent TGVs connect both towns to Paris, the treasures of the Pyrenees-Atlantiques can’t remain undiscovered for much longer, so my advice is to go now, while the integrity of this region is unspoilt. Winter is a good time; on the Côte Basque, when summer tourism is over, people revert to ancient ways of having fun, celebrating the solstice with festivals which were traditional long before Christmas.
Furthermore, the weather is as settled as its gets in these parts. Here in the hinterland of the Bay of Biscay, spring can be tempestuous and summer capricious, but autumn and early winter are usually a marvel of clear skies, fluffy clouds and spectacular sunsets.
Free from the summer haze, the awesome mountain views are there to be enjoyed on most days. Daytime temperatures reach English summer levels, and with luck you can eat Christmas lunch outside. Nothing, of course, deters the surfers; there’s usually a hardy handful of them, in wetsuits, entertaining strollers on Biarritz’s Plage des Fous, which translates as Madman’s Beach.
Even on the smart shopping streets on the coast, the winter traveller picks up the first clue to the enduring culture of the Basques. The jolly, red-faced figure poised over a chimney with a sack of toys is everywhere, but in a beret, a black coat and espadrilles cross-gartered over sheepskin leggings.
His duties are similar, but he’s not Father Christmas. This is Olentzero, one of the huge Pyreneean pantheon, a fairy foundling, raised by humble charcoal-burners, who travels from village to village bringing all good children presents. On December 24, most Basque towns have an Olentzero procession, in which prominence is given to two more great Basque specialities — music and chocolate.
Why are the Basques such sublime musicians? Well, like most mountain races, they developed big voices to carry across their valleys. And, while we sad British were being shamed out of our rural heritage by the ridicule of urban intellectuals, Basque nationalism was strengthening their traditions. The result is that, in a backstreet café in Bayonne or a square in a little town, a band of musicians will suddenly appear and play songs with glorious voices and exquisite skill.
Their instruments usually include a txistu, a three-stop pipe with a haunting tone. The oldest txistu to be found by local archaeologists has been dated around 20,000BC, which makes you feel that all the logical explanations for the miracle of Basque musicality aren’t the whole story.
Bayonne is the capital of the French Basque region, and the capital of its chocolate tradition as well. This is the legacy of a Jewish community driven out of Portugal by the Inquisition in the 16th century. The best chocolatiers are among the boutiques in the winding streets which link the cathedral and the covered market on the embankment of the River Nive; sampling their products is a pick-me-up after an intense afternoon’s shopping.
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()The river is overlooked by handsome, half-timbered medieval merchants’ houses, and lined with buzzy restaurants. With a young population and a tradition as a party town — the Fêtes de Bayonne, in summer, have been famous for centuries — Bayonne’s bars and clubs are always up for a New Year’s Eve celebration.
A scenic drive inland brings you to St Jean Pied de Port, built on a rocky outcrop at the foot of the mountains. In the Middle Ages, pilgrims bound for Satiago de Compostela stopped here before they strode out for the mountain passes. Now visitors admire the cobbled streets lined with 16th-century town houses.
From the 17th-century citadel, there is a panoramic view of the Pyrenees, from the pass of Roncesvalles, famous from the legend of Charlemagne and Roland, to the vineyards of Irouléguy, whose rounded red wines await you in the riverside cafés. Restaurant menus feature wild boar and duck, for which the southwest is famous, and the dinde de Noël (turkey), while the cheeseboard offers fromages de brebis, satiny ewe’s milk cheese, eaten with black cherry jam.
St Jean’s all-day market on Mondays is one of the largest in a region where agricultural traditions are reassuringly robust. The run-up to Christmas sees enough marchés au gras, or foie gras sales, to give Arnold Schwarzenegger apoplexy. Crates of oysters, the other seasonal essential for the French, are rushed inland from the coast.
In January, the cider festivals begin, and the 60 small presses stage tastings of the new year’s vintage.
The little market town of St Palais hosts the Pyrenean equivalent of Appleby horse fair on Boxing Day, where almost-wild pottock-cross horses are sold next to family hacks and the dark brown Pyrenean donkeys. In January, there’s a dedicated pottock fair in the town of Espelette.
After Olentzero, a new round of festivities begins but, since this region is untouched by international mass tourism, many of the most enchanting events are not widely advertised. Small posters and local newspapers are the best way to find out what’s happening.
From the first Sunday in January, the Mascarades begin in the village of Aussurucq in the inland province of Soule. These are the Basque precursor of speed-dating; a group of unattached young men, fantastically dressed as various low-life characters, pitches up at a village, overturns a token barrier of tables laden with food and drink, and starts showing off by dancing in the main square until the girls join in.
The village Licq-Athérey, the centre of this tradition, is hosting the Pastorales, mock battles in dance between Moors and Christians, a survival of medieval mystery plays.
However charming and historic, folklore does not wow everyone. Fortunately for the sporty, there’s usually enough snow by mid-December for the little resorts of La Pierre St Martin, Arette and Artouste to open. On average, their facilities comprise ten ski lifts, one black run, two hire shops, a cashpoint, some cafés, plus miles of cross-country trails.
The stations cater principally for local people with sledge parks and snow-shoe walks, and the atmosphere is family-oriented and relaxed.
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()Need to know
Getting there: Ryanair (0871 2460000, www.ryanair.com) has daily flights from Stansted to Biarritz and to Pau.
Where to stay: Self-catering: Vintage Travel (0845 3440460, www.vintagetravel.com.uk), has some houses in the region, or look at www.gites-de-france.fr.
Hotels: Biarritz is lavishly equipped. Inland the luxury option is the Hotel Les Pyrenees (00 33 5 59 37 01 01) in St Jean Pied de Port, doubles from £140. There are some appealing guest houses, with great views and memorable restaurants, but call first as some close in winter. Chez Tante Ursule (59 29 78 23), Cambo-les-Bains, doubles from £35. Ostalpia (59 54 73 79) Ahetze, doubles from £53. La Belle Auberge (59 38 15 28), Castagnede, Salies de Béarn, doubles from £26. Chilo ( 59 28 90 79), Barcus, doubles from £32. Hotel Bidegain (59 28 16 05), Mauleon Licharre, doubles from £28.
Useful websites: www.euskalherria.com; www.pyreneesguide.com; www.touradour.com; www.tourisme64.com; www.valleedesoule.com; www.ski64.com.
Reading: Cadogan Guides — Gascony & Pyrenees, and Bilbao and The Basque Lands (both £12.99).
Deep France by Celia Brayfield (Pan, £7.99).
