Sare, collines et grottes de Xareta

A bike ride in the country of Xareta sounds tempting, right? A small country, a valley, in short, shared by four localities, two French ones (Sare and Ainhoa), and two Spanish (Zuagarramurdi and Urdax). There are stories about caves occupied since the dawn of time, others about witches performing rituals, clandestine parties happening, and even smugglers running in the mountains. Here, the border between France and Spain only exists on maps, because geography made it so that we consider ourselves neighbours of villages, we even exchange goods and speak the same language. Even today, we cross each other on the many cross-border roads and paths without knowing if we are in France or Spain. We are in the country of Xareta, that’s it.