La Bastide-Clairence

The kingdom of Navarre founded this new town in 1312 to secure its route to the Adour, and settlers came from south-west France, Basque villages and, later, a Sephardic community fleeing the Inquisition. Two building styles line its streets: white Labourd houses with red or green timbers, and Navarrese ones with arched stone doorways. Craft workshops now fill the arcaded square.

Highlights

• The Place des Arceaux and its craft workshops
• Notre-Dame church, with side galleries paved with family tombstones
• The cagots' door, a reminder of an outcast people
• The old Jewish cemetery, with tombs from 1620 to 1785
• Trinquet Gartxot, the old jeu de paume court

Text adapted from Wikipedia (La Bastide-Clairence (FR), La Bastide-Clairence (EN)), Wikivoyage (La Bastide-Clairence (FR), La Bastide-Clairence (EN)). Available under CC BY-SA 4.0.