Hendaye

Hendaye is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department and the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern France, the most southwesterly town of metropolitan France and a popular seaside resort. It stands on the right bank of the River Bidasoa, which marks the Franco-Spanish border, where the river empties into the Atlantic Ocean in the French Basque Country. The town has three distinguishable parts: la ville, the town proper, la plage, the seaside quarter, and les hauteurs, the villas and camping sites on the hills behind. Its Basque name Hendaia means the baker's peel, an oven shovel. Hendaye became independent of the Urrugne parish in 1598 when Saint Vincent's church was built. The Treaty of the Pyrenees, which ended decades of intermittent war between France and Spain, was signed in 1659 on the Île des Faisans in the river, whose authority alternates between the two countries every six months. The railway reached the town in 1863 and the first Madrid to Paris train arrived on 15 August 1864, turning it into an international hub and a resort. On 23 October 1940 Franco and Hitler met in the railway station.