Taxi Bordeaux → Hendaye

Hendaye is the last French town on the Atlantic coast before Spain, a unique confluence of Basque culture, French heritage and Iberian proximity. Located at the mouth of the Bidassoa, the border river between France and Spain, Hendaye boasts the largest beach on the Basque coast: over 3 km of fine sand in a protected bay shape, facing the Spanish town of Hondarribia (Fontarrabie) across the estuary. This exceptional west-facing beach is one of the rare Basque coast beaches offering safe family swimming thanks to its cove configuration. The Château-Observatoire d'Abbadia, perched on the cliffs of the Abbadia Estate, is a fanciful neo-Gothic monument built by Viollet-le-Duc for Antoine d'Abbadie, a 19th-century Basque explorer and scientist who had lived in Ethiopia. The château houses an astronomical observatory still in operation, and its orientalist interiors are stunning. The Basque Corniche, a coastal path between Hendaye and Saint-Jean-de-Luz (12 km), is one of France's most beautiful coastal walks: flysch cliffs sculpted by erosion, wild coves and panoramas of the Spanish coast and the Pyrenees. The Île des Faisans (Pheasant Island), a tiny islet in the middle of the Bidassoa, is a unique Franco-Spanish condominium: sovereignty alternates between the two countries every six months. It was here that the Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed in 1659.