Gastronomy on the Spanish side of the Basque country: Bilbao & Hondarribia

The New York Times over the last 2 months wrote two interesting articles about gastronomy on the Spanish side of the Basque country, 2 destinations easily reachable  for the evening or the day for travellers staying on the French side, in the St Jean de Luz/ Biarritz coastal stretch:

1)  in the little town of Hondarribia, located right on the Spanish/French border: A Dining Explosion in a Tiny Basque Town at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/travel/01Next.html?emc=eta1 Some good addresses for sure. Hondarribia is not as small as  what the article mentions. It has been very popular for many years among the habitants of Irun, as Hondarribia is like a fancy subburb by the beach of Irun, the busy commercial border town.  Hondarribia is rich in history ( ie the land of many battles) and its medieval architecture offers a treat to the eyes. While staying in France, on the French side of the Basque country, it is a very popular and easy to get to destination for a few drinks and pinxos ( basque word for tapas): you hop on a boat from the French town of Hendaye to cross the Bidasoa river that separates the two countries. Make sure you take a stroll up the hill all the way to the old town, la parte vieja,  after you warm up your senses with a couple of pinxos and a glass of txaculi  in the fisherman's village called la Marina

2) in the city of Bilbao well known for its Guggenheim: In Bilbao, it's not just the Museum  at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/travel/10Choice.html?emc=eta1 The renaissance of this city includes some amazing contributions in all price categories by various chefs. If coming from the French side on a full day outing to Bilbao, do spend the time to go to the Casco Viejo, the old quarter of town, reachable via a nice walk along the river from the Guggenheim.

No matter what, even if you are not a committed foodie, do take the time to enjoy  a few pinxos in the company of locals.

Canada welcomes Michel Hacala, French-Basque artist and his Canadian- Basque whaling scenes

NEWS RELEASE, October 7, 2010
Canada welcomes Michel Hacala, French-Basque artist who is painting Canadian-Basque whaling scenes

(Toronto) Michel Hacala has come to Quebec and Ontario to paint huge colourful images of Basque fishermen chasing whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the late 1500s-early 1600s.

The highly successful painter-sculptor is himself from the Basque region of southwest France, and he even enjoyed a first career as a fisherman (in the Bay of Biscay, off France and Spain).

But why would he want to paint dreamy images from the pre-Jacques-Cartier era of Canada? You could say that he is chasing his ancestors and the contact they had with Canada’s whales and its First Nations peoples.*

An international exhibit of Hacala’s historic Canadian whaling series is being planned by the Basque Museum of Bayonne (France) and the new Cité de l’Océan (opening in Biarritz, France, in 2011). Exhibition partners are being sought in Canada, Spain, and North American locales where Basque people have settled over the centuries.

Hacala spent the month of September doing creative research and then painting in the Bas-St-Laurent region of Quebec (St. Lawrence Lowlands), thanks to Parc de l’aventure basque en Amérique in Trois-Pistoles (www.aventurebasque.ca), and artist Caroline Jacques’s workshop and gallery in St-Fabien (www.carolinejacques.com). The images Hacala worked on were just shown at the Parc de l’aventure basque en Amérique, and he and they come to Ontario in October as follows.

Museums, galleries, media, and other interested parties are all invited:

Collingwood: Thanksgiving Monday, October 11, 1:00-3:00PM, Alpine Equestrian Centre, just minutes from downtown Collingwood, 795601 Osler Bluff Road, www.alpineequestrian.com

Toronto: Friday, October 15, 2:00-7:30PM, Baby Point Clubhouse, 71 Baby Point Road, west end of Toronto, closest major intersection Jane & Annette Streets

Evelyne Dufau, founder of Expérience Authentique (www.FrenchSouthwest.com), is Michel Hacala’s agent in North America. Please contact her for further information about Hacala in Canada at (866) 760-9813 or 66 Baby Point Crescent, Toronto, Ontario M6S 2C1. Expérience Authentique organizes trips to the Basque coastal region of France and Spain, and more.

To see Michel Hacala’s extraordinary body of work (paintings, sculptures, mosaics), visit www. Hacala-art.com. His large paintings (200cm x 130cm) are typically priced in the range of 6,000 euros ($8,500 Canadian).

* Right and bowhead whales, once plentiful in the coastal Labrador waters and the Gulf of St. Lawrence estuary, attracted whalers from the Basque country during the 16th century. A thriving industry developed around whale oil, a highly prized commodity in Europe. Every spring until about 1626, the Basque sailed to their North American whaling stations, where they built stone ovens to prepare whale oil. Such ovens can be found on the Ile aux Basques (island of the Basques) that faces Trois-Pistoles, as well as a number of other artifacts.

Thanks to Guillaume Lamontagne, Parc de l’aventure basque en Amérique, for information for this news release.