Bayonne Travel Guide

Gently sloping from the Pyrenees’ western foothills into the deep sapphire-blue Bay of Biscay, the Basque Country is an unspoiled part of the world. Straddling France and Spain, the French Basques have their ‘capital’ in Bayonne, the region’s cultural and economic powerhouse. Its authentically preserved old town is a marvel – bisected by bridges arching over its confluence of rivers. Bayonne is both a fascinating destination in its own right and the ideal base from which to explore the lush green valleys of the Cote Basque.

The Basque Country boasts a remarkable history – recent DNA testing has shown that the Basque people have inhabited the region for at least 30,000 years. They were the only people in Europe to have remained in the area for so long. According to linguists, their language and culture are utterly fascinating – according to linguists Euskara, the Basque language is unrelated to any other tongue on earth. It is spoken by over 1 million people in France and Spain today, a testament to the high esteem in which the Basques hold their culture and traditions.

However, the early history of the region is shrouded in mystery. Although Roman sources mention a tribe called the Vascones living in the area, it is suggested that the Basques took over southwestern France in the 6th century. The Romans conquered France in the 1st century AD, yet they never managed to subjugate the area fully, and the Basques were able to shelter in the mountains and continue to survive by fishing in the ocean. Meanwhile, France remained under Roman control until the 5th century – during the collapse of the Western empire, the Franks and the Alemanni invaded and eventually overran the country from the east.

The Frankish Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties ruled France from the 5th to the 10th centuries, with the Carolingians wielding power from Laon in northern France. It was a tumultuous period in French history, and relatively little is known about Bayonne. The Frankish tradition, by which all of his sons succeeded the King, led to massive power struggles and the eventual disintegration of the kingdom into small feudal states. Bayonne’s salvation came in 1152, when Eleanor of Aquitaine married Henry of Anjou, bringing a third of France – including Bayonne – under English control. As a port of growing importance, Bayonne was granted considerable commercial privileges, and the burgeoning city prospered from the trade in Bordeaux wines and products such as ham, from which Bayonne is now massively famous. It became a major center for shipbuilding and trade with England, and northern Europe flourished – a golden age.

During the Hundred Years War between French and English forces (allied with the Dukes of Burgundy), Jean de Dunois, a former ally of Joan of Arc, captured Bayonne in 1451 and annexed it for the French Crown. After that, successive kings of France added fortifications to the city to protect it from incursions from the Spanish border.

The 16th century was a time of great religious and social upheaval for the citizens of France. At the beginning of the century, the plague arrived in the Basque Country; by 1518, cases were recorded in nearby St-Jean de Luz, and the Bayonne council forbade contact with the neighboring town’s citizens. Subsequently, in 1519, the city council moved out of the city to avoid infection. Yet compared to most of Europe, the impact of the plague was minimal, and far more people died in northern France, particularly in Paris, for example.

Meanwhile, the Reformation was sweeping through Europe. The ideas of John Calvin strengthened it in France; following the Edict of Jan (1562), which afforded the Protestants certain rights, the Wars of Religion broke out between the Huguenots (French Protestants) and the Catholic League and Monarchy. Yet Bayonne seemed relatively untroubled by the conflict and continued to prosper as a major fishing and trading port.

Social and economic crises marked the 18th century, yet for the citizens of Bayonne, this was generally a prosperous era. The city’s wealth was fuelled by Basque privateers, who landed cargoes much more valuable and sweeter scented than the tonnes of cod caught off the coast of Newfoundland by the substantial Basque fishing fleet. Yet France was rife with political tensions and conflict, culminating in the declaration of the First Republic in 1792 and the abolition of the Monarchy. Louis XVI was publicly guillotined in January 1793 on Paris’ Place de la Concorde, and the head of his queen, the vilified Marie-Antoinette, rolled several months later.

However, the First Republic was not to last. In 1799, a dashing young Corsican general named Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the government and declared himself consul of the First Empire. Napoleon waged several European wars to consolidate and legitimize his authority, the most damaging to Bayonne being the Peninsula War (1807-1814). After invading Portugal in alliance with the Spanish, Napoleon turned on his former ally and fought against the UK and Portugal for control of the peninsula. The invasion destroyed the Spanish government of the time and caused much bloodshed, not to mention economic upheaval. Bayonne, as a significant trading partner with Spain, suffered greatly and was the setting for the Siege of Bayonne, which marked the end of the period with the surrender of Napoleon’s troops under the control of Marshal Jean de Die Soult, who was defeated by Wellington in 1814.

The second half of the 19th century saw prosperity return to the citizens of Bayonne. In 1854, French railways connected the Basque region to Paris, and tourists poured into the glamorous resort of Biarritz. Yet Bayonne never enjoyed the same renown; instead, it focused on developing a lucrative steel industry. At the same time, in 1856, The Treaty of Bayonne finally settled disputes over the Spanish/French border.

The horrors of the 1st and 2nd World Wars would mark the 20th century. Over 700 of Bayonne’s citizens perished in the trenches of northeastern France. Subsequently, the naming of Adolf Hitler as Germany’s chancellor in 1933 signaled the end of a decade of compromise between France and Germany. Initially, the French tried to appease Hitler, but two days after Germany invaded Poland in 1939, France joined Britain in declaring war on Germany. By June 1940, France had capitulated, and the country was divided between Nazi-occupied Northern France and the puppet state called Vichy France. A Nazi Panzer division occupied Bayonne during the war, finally defeated in 1944. It was a dark period for France – the Vichy regime was notoriously anti-semitic, and local police proved very helpful to the Nazis in rounding up French Jews and others for deportation to Auschwitz and other death camps.

Yet Bayonne has emerged from the horrors of the 2nd World War and is today a fitting symbol of Basque pride and culture. Of course, it lacks the sheen and glamour of Biarritz, but then Bayonne has never been interested in making a scene. Its charms lie in its authenticity, atmosphere, and the wonderfully preserved historic center; until 1907, it was forbidden to build outside of the city’s fortifications, resulting in the narrow, curved streets of Petit Bayonne, with riverside buildings adorned with red and green shutters and shoals of riverside restaurants. And although you can cross the architecturally preserved center on foot in 15 minutes, it is far better to spend hours discovering its hidden laneways and remnants of a fascinating past. This lively university town is hard to beat for a dose of excitement, Basque culture, and high-class gastronomy.