[BobS]

I spent some time in northern Spain and met some Basque people. Fine people that spoke in English to me- probably just to practice my own language. They live on some of the most fertile ground in Europe to grow things on. Very green veggies. Lambs that taste really good.

If I could do over now, I would live there and marry a wife that says screw the big cities, it's fine just exactly where we are right now.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

What's the cost of living like ?

[RayChuang88]

What is interesting is that many Basque people migrated to what is now northern Nevada state (of all things!) and turned that part of the state into a major sheep grazing area. From Reno east to Ely, the Basque influence is still there.

There used to be a lot of tensions between the ETA terrorists and the Spanish government but things have calmed down quite a bit now that the Basques in Spain have the type of autonomy that the Catalans enjoy in that country.

As for the origins of the Basque people, it's so baffling that some of the more far-out suggestions that they are the descendants of the Atlanteans when that continent sank ain't much more far-out than many of what anthropologists suggest nowadays.

[NCLaw441]

I lived in southern France, a town called Pau, in 1980-81. There is a large Basque presence there. The people were very friendly (which I think is more a function of small towns than being Basque). I heard some Basque spoken. I was able to speak French with them without the criticism I found in Paris and Bordeau. The French spoken there was slower and with a nasal character. Words like pain and vin were pronounced (roughly) as "pang" and "vang".

As for the women there, some were attractive enough, but very few caught my eye. This had more to do with hygiene than looks, though, as I recall.

[Old Professer]

" I would live there and marry a wife that says screw the big cities."

She's going to need a grocery cart to carry the quarters.