the numbers game

We have been here for a little over four months and are already becoming known, hopefully for good reasons. Each time I walk around town I am guaranteed to meet someone to talk to. Though this is lovely I was embarassed today when I snuck out for my first cigarette in months and bumped into one of our close friends on the school run. Knowing and being known is double-edged, but if the rough edge means I stop completely then no bad thing.

The population of St Jean de Luz is somewhere in the region of 14,000 although this trebles in the summer months. Similarly Biarritz has some 30,000 full time residents though 120,000 in July and August. The French Basque region has a population of c270,000, 30% of whom speak Basque. The entire Basque population (French and Spanish) is nearer 2.1m and the region extends some 21k square kilometres, about the same size as Wales but with less sheep and better weather.Basque of the day:- people :: jende