Personal accounts of the lifestyle, farming traditions and local fiestas in the Basque Country villages of the Spanish Pyrenees.
Over the past decades I have come to realise just how important a role the Basque farmhouse (etxea) plays in the Basque culture. It is paramount to the family seat, even perhaps a family ‘stable’ and is always the first theme I address on our Total Basque Mountain Culture Walking Weeks. When the final roof
On Friday, I sent an e-mail to François Grosjean, Emeritus Professor of Psycholinguistics, from the University of Neuchatel, about my 6-year-old daughter, Marion, and her tri-lingualism. Within hours François had emailed me a very personal reply of which I was extremely appreciative and had me mulling over the characteristics and quirks of her tri-lingual nature
Ituren Carnival: 31st January 2011 After a mug of hot broth, (caldo), traditionally made from boiled pork and chickens feet, we climbed the steps to the attic rooms above the town hall and plunged into a frenzy of bells and ropes, of sheep’s skins and brightly-coloured swaddling ribbons. No, don’t be misled by the pretty pinks
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