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Espelette

Espelette is a delightful village built in the traditional Basque style with white houses and red or occasionally green shutters. Espelette is famous for its chilli peppers, those grown in this region even have an ‘appellation controlee’ to vouch for their authenticity. After the harvest the houses are strung with strings of the ‘piments’ and the effect is wonderfully colourful. If you can, visit during the ‘Fete aux piments’ in October.

Visiting in September/October and you see the strings of bright red chilli peppers. Visit later in the year and some are still there (many are sold) but turn a deeper shade of red as they dry.

Walking round the village many of the shops are dedicated to the Espelette piments. You can buy the strings to take home for cooking or buy olive oil which has piment and garlic inside. Perfect to pour on pizza (French restaurants always have a bottle of spicy oil to pour on pizzas) or to spice up your salads and they make great presents. There are many other products too. In a neighbouring village they even had macaroons with piments in, quite tasty too!

The church at Espelette has the typical Basque interior with wooden galleries going round the wall. It is a very attractive style for a church interior make sure you wander inside some of the churches in this region.

Espelette: tourist information, map, travel plans and gites

Places to visit - Espelette

Explore places within about 70 kilometres on a map: Espelette.

Some of the closer places are listed below (distances from Espelette are approximate and direct - as the crow flies. Only places listed on the france this way site are shown!)

• Ainhoa Most beautiful village at 7 km
• Anglet town at 18 km
• Bayonne Important town at 17 km
• Biarritz Atlantic resort and surf capital at 20 km
• Cambo-les-Bains attractive town and gardens at 5 km
• Ciboure Atlantic town and resort at 25 km
• Itxassou pretty village at 5 km
• La Bastide-Clairence Most beautiful village at 23 km
• La Rhune Basque mountain at 21 km
• Saint Jean de Luz Coastal town and resort at 24 km
• Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port Attractive town at 30 km
• Sare Most beautiful village at 15 km

- See also Espelette (version Francais)

Information and photos

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