MUSÉE BASQUE ET DE L’HISTOIRE DE BAYONNE

Hemen sartzen dena, bere etxean da (whoever enters here is at home)! Welcome to the Musée de France, home to the richest collection devoted to social life in the Northern Basque Country (Iparralde). The Maison Dagourette, a rare and beautiful ^17th-century harbour house, has been home to the Musée Basque since its opening in 1924. Following a major renovation in 2001, vast, luminous contemporary spaces have been added to the old building, offering comfort and fluidity to the visitor itinerary. Around a large skylight (Argialde), some twenty themed rooms on three levels reveal the many aspects of Basque culture: origins and language, funeral rites, rural life and architecture, domestic life and crafts, maritime and river activities, festivals and games, and regional history. The section devoted to the history of Bayonne evokes Basque and Gascon societies at the confluence of the Nive and Adour rivers, and the opening onto the Atlantic Ocean. Each year, a temporary exhibition highlights a theme, an artist or an aspect of art and society in the Basque country. Just a stone's throw from the museum, on the heights of Place Paul Bert, the north wing of the Château-Neuf (a listed ^15th-century fortress) houses the museum's Library-Documentation Centre, one of the richest structures in the Basque area, with 30,000 documents, old and contemporary, manuscripts, books, newspapers, magazines...

Visitors welcome: online booking compulsory. Practical information is available on the museum's website (www.musee-basque.com)

Tours: self-guided and guided tours bookable online. Free audio tour application: "Musée Basque et de l'Histoire" available in French, Basque, Spanish and English on App Store and Google Play, to be downloaded before visiting the museum.

Activities: consult the agenda on the museum website. Family and children's tours; Thursdays at the museum, 6pm, free admission by reservation (05 59 59 08 98), guided tours, lectures, musical and dance lectures, film screenings, etc. Activities for adults and young people; school activities: contact the mediation department (06 25 24 34 24); library-documentation center: by appointment from 9:30am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm (05 59 59 57 50 - 05 59 59 57 54).

Store: bookshop and exclusive creations.