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Articles on the Basque culture and traditions of the Basque Country and in the mountain villages of the Spanish Pyrenees.

Mermaids with Dangerous Combs! Lamiak con Peines Peligrosos

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Georgina Howard
Thursday, 27 January 2011 / Published in Basque Culture and Tradition, Basque Mythology
The lamia on a coat of arms on a house in Oriegi
The Lamiak, easily compared to Greco-Roman nymphs, are creatures of Basque mythology who figure greatly in local toponyms, and are often found represented in the coats of arms of the large farmhouses of the area. According to legend, the Lamia is a mermaid-like creature with either bird-like feet or a fish’s tail who dwells in mountain springs
Basque CountryBasque CultureBasque languagebasque traditions

Carnival Time Again – The Bustle of Life in Ameztia

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Georgina Howard
Thursday, 20 January 2011 / Published in Basque Culture and Tradition, Basque Lifestyle, Ituren carnivals
The home of the Joaldunak
I just popped in on Amatxi yesterday and she was bent double over the kitchen table taking in the waist on her grandson’s lace petticoats. Carnival time is coming .. by far the most exciting and loved moment of the year for our village of Ituren.  There is a general buzz everywhere, groups of youths congregating in farm sheds and clinks
Basque CultureBasque historyCarnivalsIturenJoaldunakPyreneesSpain

Basque Rural Sports

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Georgina Howard
Monday, 02 August 2010 / Published in Basque Culture and Tradition, Visit the Pyrenees
Village school sports day
Another guest post from Veronica of La Recette du Jour. Being in a country where you don’t speak the language well enough to understand everything that’s going on gets you into some odd situations where you can discover all sorts of interesting things you would never have guessed the existence of otherwise. Yesterday was one
Basque CountryBasque CultureBasque historybasque traditions

Home-made Basque cheese

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Georgina Howard
Thursday, 10 June 2010 / Published in Basque Culture and Tradition, Basque Food
A guest post from Veronica of La Recette du Jour. We took the opportunity of living a few months at Iaulin Borda in Ameztia in the Navarran Pyrenees. It is next door to a sheep farm run by Sagrario and her husband, Ignacio, so we to went over one day to find out how our neighbour makes
Basque Culturebasque traditionsGastronomy

Smuggler Friend – Koikili (part 1)

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Georgina Howard
Friday, 28 May 2010 / Published in Basque Culture and Tradition, Basque Lifestyle
Koikili and my daughter, Marion, 6, at our Pyrenean mountain home
Ask Koikil what he does for a living and he will say that he is an unemployed smuggler. Like many of the people here on the Basque/Spanish – French border Koilki was a very young child when he first accompanied his father on his night smuggling missions over the Pyrenees into France. Born in 1955, Koikili’s family had a tradition of horse breeding and so he has
Basque historycomet linePyreneessmuggling

Farming by the Moon

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Georgina Howard
Friday, 28 May 2010 / Published in Basque Culture and Tradition, Basque Food, Basque Lifestyle, Wildlife of the Pyrenees
Amatxi in the vegetable garden of Zubialdea in Ameztia
One of the striking things I have learned in this Basque farming hamlet of Ameztia, is just how much of daily life is affected by the moods of the weather and the cycles of the sun and moon.  Amatxi, (our adopted grandmother of 83), always says that the full moon heralds a change in the weather. Yesterday there was
Basque Culturebasque traditionsfarming
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Featured Posts

  • Comet Line children meet in France

    Basque Children of the Resistance

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  • pyrenean experience sunset over the valley on our guided walking holidays in the Pyrenees

    Comet Line Crossing of the Pyrenees

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  • Map of the French and Spanish Pyrenees

    Secrets of the Pyrenees

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  • Hiking in the Pyrenees: the Baztan and Bidasoa Valleys

    Hiking in the Pyrenees – stunning scenery and ancient Basque traditions

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  • Colour definitions - is it green, blue or grey?

    Seeing Life in Colours – and the need to expand our vocabulary!

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