French Basque Country in the context of "Communauté d'agglomération du Pays Basque"

French people (French: Les Français, lit. 'The French') are a nation primarily located in Western Europe that share a common French culture, history, and language, identified with the country of France.

The French people, especially the native speakers of langues d'oïl from northern and central France, are primarily descended from Romans (or Gallo-Romans, western European Celtic and Italic peoples), Gauls (including the Belgae), as well as Germanic peoples such as the Franks, the Visigoths, the Suebi and the Burgundians who settled in Gaul from east of the Rhine after the fall of the Roman Empire, as well as various later waves of lower-level irregular migration that have continued to the present day. The Norsemen also settled in Normandy in the 10th century and contributed significantly to the ancestry of the Normans. Furthermore, regional ethnic minorities also exist within France that have distinct lineages, languages and cultures such as Bretons in Brittany, Occitans in Occitania, Basques in the French Basque Country, Catalans in northern Catalonia, Germans in Alsace, Corsicans in Corsica and Flemings in French Flanders.

Occitania is the historical region in southern Europe where the Occitan language was historically spoken and where it persists today as a local dialect. This cultural area roughly encompasses much of the southern third of France (except the French Basque Country and French Catalonia) as well as part of Spain (Aran Valley), Monaco, and parts of Italy (Occitan Valleys).

Occitania has been recognized as a linguistic and cultural concept since the Middle Ages. The territory was united in Roman times as the Seven Provinces (Latin: Septem Provinciae) and in the Early Middle Ages (Aquitanica or the Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse, or the share of Louis the Pious following Thionville divisio regnorum in 806).

Basque (/ˈbæsk, ˈbɑːsk/ BASK, BAHSK; euskara [eus̺ˈkaɾa]) is a language spoken by Basques and other residents of the Basque Country, a region that straddles the westernmost Pyrenees in adjacent parts of southwestern France and northern Spain. Basque is classified as a language isolate (unrelated to any other known languages), the only one in Europe. The Basques are indigenous to and primarily inhabit the Basque Country. The Basque language is spoken by 806,000 Basques in all territories. Of them, 93.7% (756,000) are in the Spanish area of the Basque Country and the remaining 6.3% (51,000) are in the French portion.

Native speakers live in a contiguous area that includes parts of four Spanish provinces and the three "ancient provinces" in France. Gipuzkoa, most of Biscay, a few municipalities on the northern border of Álava and the northern area of Navarre formed the core of the remaining Basque-speaking area before measures were introduced in the 1980s to strengthen Basque fluency. By contrast, most of Álava, the westernmost part of Biscay, and central and southern Navarre are predominantly populated by native speakers of Spanish, either because Basque was replaced by either Navarro-Aragonese or Spanish over the centuries (as in most of Álava and central Navarre), or because it may never have been spoken there (as in parts of Enkarterri and south-eastern Navarre).

The Cantabrian Sea is the term used mostly in Spain to describe the coastal sea of the Atlantic Ocean that borders the northern coast of Spain and the southwest side of the Atlantic coast of France, included in the Bay of Biscay. It extends from Cabo Ortegal in the province of A Coruña, to the mouth of the river Adour, near the city of Bayonne on the coast of the department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques in French Basque Country. The Cantabrian Sea contains the Avilés Canyons System.

The sea borders 800 km (500 mi) of coastline shared by the Spanish provinces of A Coruña, Lugo, Asturias, Cantabria, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, and the French area of Labourd.

Bayonne (French: [bajɔn] in Basque and Gascon Baiona) is a city in southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region also known as French Basque Country.

Bayonne is located at the confluence of the Nive and Adour Rivers, in the northern part of the cultural region of the Basque Country. It is the seat of the Communauté d'agglomération du Pays Basque which roughly encompasses the western half of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, including the coastal city of Biarritz. The area also constitutes the southern part of Gascony, where the Aquitaine Basin joins the beginning of the Pre-Pyrenees.

Biarritz (UK: /bɪəˈrɪts, ˈbɪərɪts/ beer-ITS, BEER-its, US: /ˌbiːəˈrɪts, ˈbiːərɪts/ BEE-ə-RITS, -⁠rits, French: [bjaʁits] , Basque: [bi.arits̻]; also spelled Miarritze [mi.arits̻e]; Occitan: Biàrritz [ˈbjarits]) is a city on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the French Basque Country in southwestern France. It is located 35 kilometres (22 mi) from the border with Spain. It is a luxurious seaside tourist destination known for the Hôtel du Palais (originally built for the Empress Eugénie c. 1855), its seafront casinos, and its surfing culture.

The Southern Basque Country (Basque: Hegoalde, Hego Euskal Herria; Spanish: País Vasco sur, País Vasco peninsular), also known as the Spanish Basque Country (Basque: Espainiako Euskal Herria; Spanish: País Vasco español), is the Basque territories southside of the Pyrenees, within the Iberian Peninsula.

Erromintxela (Basque pronunciation: [eromintʃela] ) is the distinctive language of a group of Romani living in the Basque Country, who also go by the name Erromintxela. It is sometimes called Basque Caló or Errumantxela in English; caló vasco, romaní vasco, or errominchela in Spanish; and euskado-rromani or euskado-romani in French. Although detailed accounts of the language date to the end of the 19th century, linguistic research began only in the 1990s.

The Erromintxela are the descendants of a 15th-century wave of Kalderash Roma, who entered the Basque Country via France. Both ethnically and linguistically, they are distinct from the Caló-speaking Romani people in Spain and the Cascarot Romani people of the Northern Basque Country. Erromintxela is a mixed language (referred to as Para-Romani in Romani linguistics), deriving most of its vocabulary from Kalderash Romani but using Basque grammar, similar to the way the Angloromani language of the Roma in England mixes Romani vocabulary and English grammar. The development of the mixed language was facilitated by the unusually deep integration of the Erromintxela people into Basque society and the resultant bilingualism in Basque. The language is in decline; most of the perhaps 1000 remaining speakers live on the coast of Labourd and in the mountainous regions of Soule, Navarre, Gipuzkoa and Biscay.