Béhobie, at the Spanish end of the bridge, the French call “the biggest hamlet in Europe.” It virtually is a hamlet, but it has some of the largest business and industrial enterprises in the country, for here have been established branch houses and factories of many a great French industry in order to avoid the tariff tax imposed on foreign products in the Spanish peninsula. The game has been played before elsewhere, but never so successfully as here.
Maison Pierre Loti, Hendaye
On the Pointe de Ste. Anne, the northern boundary of the estuary of the Bidassoa, is a monumental château, the work of Viollet-le-Duc, built by him for the Comte d’Abbadie. Modern though it is, its architectural opulence is in keeping with the knowledge of its builder (the greatest authority on Gothic the world has ever known, or ever will know); and as a combination of the excellencies of old-time building with modern improvements, this Château d’Abbadie stands quite in a class by itself. At the death of the widow of the Comte d’Abbadie, the château was bequeathed by her to the Institut de France.
The view seaward from the little peninsula upon which the château sits is marvellously soft and beautiful, and what matter it if the fish of the Golfe de Fontarabie to the south have no eyes—if indeed his statement be true. No oculist or zoölogist has said it, but a poet has written thus:—
“Le poisson qui rouvrit l’œil mort du vieux Tobie
Se joue au fond du golfe où dort fontarabie.”
Near by is the Forêt d’Yraty, much like most of the forests of France, except that this is all up and down hill, clinging perilously wherever there is enough loose soil for a tree to take root.