This blog loves a boundary and the border between Spain and France is one of the more significant. It's 425 miles long, was finally settled in 1856 and mostly follows the drainage divide of the Pyrenees. At its western end it divides the towns of Irun (Spain) and Hendaye (France), or more precisely the Spanish town of Hondarribia and the French suburb of Zokuburu. If you stand in Hondarribia's mainsquare and look down the hill you can see where the border ends at the mouth of the river Bidasoa. Spain's on the left, France on the right.
There are many ways to cross the border here.
By road
European route E5 crosses the border four miles upstream at the Zubi Nazioartekoa. On the Spanish side the autoroute is designated AP-8, then morphs into the A63 to Bordeaux in the middle of the bridge. The French side immediately welcomes drivers with a toll booth, or if viewed the other way charges drivers for leaving the country. There are no passport checks or customs, nor at the two non-motorway bridges between the two sides. We returned via the more minor Santiago Bridge, freely crossing thanks to EU accords which have made the former queues obsolete. That said we did pass French gendarmes setting up beside the road ready to spot-check inbound traffic, so maybe be careful what you choose to take in or out.
By rail
A 120m-long railway bridge links Spanish railways to France, which is awkward because the countries have very different gauges. There are thus a heck of a lot of marshalling yards on either side to aid transfer of rolling stock. A parallel bridge carries the Euskotren metro train from San Sebastián but this travels only 400m into France before terminating at Hendaye station. Long distance rail travellers need to transfer to the Euskotren to make their connection, or else lug their luggage for a mile and a half via the Santiago Bridge. We had hoped to visit Biarritz by train but the connecting faff (and oddly infrequent services on the French side) made it far better to drive instead. [The Man in Seat 61]
By boat
The lowest crossing of the border is theferry that's been shuttling between Hondarribia and Hendaye since 1993. The service crosses Txingudi Bay in seven minutes flat for the ferry reasonable fare of €2.50. The jetty was only a ten minute walk from where I took today's first photo so I was sorely tempted to make a pointless border crossing just for the sake of it. My travelling companions instead prioritised lunch so we settled at Mika Jatetxea for pintxos and pork rib with orange and cheddar sauce and I missed my chance. Also best not risk a trip to a foreign country when your plane leaves in three hours, so Hondarribia's lovely walledtown was a far safer bet.
By air
For reasons of flatness San Sebastián's airport is 10 miles east of the city in Hondarribia, built on reclaimed land in the Bidasoa estuary. For reasons of space the runway is short so gets only a handful of flights daily, all in small planes including a few weekly returns to London City Airport. For reasons of geography the runway is incredibly close to the mid-stream national border, the centre of the runway barely 100m away, indeed only a few seconds after take-off you've already entered French airspace. If you remember the very first photo I showed you at the start of my holiday travelogue, taken from the window of my departing plane, that had Spain in the foreground, France in the background and the Santiago Bridge inbetween. One holiday, two countries, and somehow it's taken me longer to write up than I spent there.
