The Basque country

I've been talking for the past few days about being in France, but of course from another perspective I'm in the "Basque country". This is not, in general, very evident, except for the traditional Basque houses, most of which I suspect are not very old, the Basque language on the official signage, and the odd restaurant and linen shop.

One night I asked for the wine of the region and got Irouleguy. I wrote it down phonetically as "ir-ree-le-goo" - I don't think there's much point in trying to pronounce Basque words any other way.

I found this interesting piece on the Basque tradition in America and a simple online dictionary.