Hendaye, the small border town that stood on the banks of the Bidassoa
River ― demarcating the frontier between France and Spain, had a
historically privileged position to observe events in Spain. It was on a
small island situated in the middle of the same river that a treaty was signed
between the two countries in 1666, sealed by the marriage between Louis IVX and
the Enfanta de Espagna.
In 1936, during the Spanish Civil War the Francists besieged Hendaye’s
neighbour Irun. The Republican forces who held town resisted until 1937. During
the intervening period, property owners on the French side of the river made a
pretty penny renting their windows and balconies to tourists, who could listen to
the fire of canons and watch the smoke rising from the battle, interrupted only on
Sundays and public holidays. During the course of the long drawn out siege, a
heavy Spanish cruiser anchored in the nearby bay lobbed shells over Hendaye into
Irun. After a fierce resistance the town finally fell, but not before many of its
quarters were destroyed and burnt down in the fighting.
The Civil War marked another of those turning points in history that brought an
era of peace and prosperity in the region to an end, ushering in a long and tragic
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period of war and austerity. Until 1935, Hendaye with its long golden beach had
been a resort reserved for the rich and privileged. The huge Eskualduna Hotel, built
in 1905 by Henry Martinet, was the destination of wealthy tourists, where evening
dress was tenu de riguer for its frequent balls and receptions. Its next-door
neighbour and more modest predecessor was the Hotel Continental with its two
bronze Ephebians watching over the beach. Porters, bellboys, lift boys, waiters and
chambermaids galore were at every beck and call of the hotels’ wealthy clientele.
On the sea front Spanish nannies could be seen in their starched blue uniforms and
white collars pushing the progeniture of the rich in their perambulators to take in
the sea air.
When the Casino, designed in the then fashionable Mauresque style of
architecture, opened its doors towards the end of the 19th century, its gaming
rooms offered a new distraction for the town’s tourists. Later came the sound of
Jazz, echoing from the Casino’s dance hall onto the Boulevard de la Mer, where
the VFDM electric trams passed linking Hendaye to Saint Jean de Luz and Biarritz.
Each year the so-called ‘grand’ families, passed the summer each year in their
spacious Basque style villas designed by the locally renowned architect, Edmond
Durandeau. Their large gardens overlooking the sea were tended by gardeners
whilst their owners’ every need was cared for by a small army of housekeepers,
cooks, maids, drivers and general servants.
To cater for the wants of the wealthy one of the most famous Parisian department
stores opened a branch in Hendaye, with the name board on its facade proudly
announcing ‘Galeries Lafayette, Paris, London, Hendaye’.
With the instauration of the Spanish Republic in April 1931, the peseta was
devalued massively, hitting the pockets of Hendaye’s Spanish clientele. Then with
outbreak of the Spanish Civil War the border was closed, depriving the grand
hotels on the Basque Coast of an important part of their business. Access to cheap
labour and general supplies was cut and little by little the fortunes of the Hendaye’s
hotels declined. Hit by rising labour costs and a fall in the number of well-heeled
clients, they were no longer capable of making ends meet.
In 1936, paid annual holidays were introduced for the working classes by
France’s first socialist government, signalling the end of an epoch for the
privileged, offering workers two weeks of freedom during which they could
emulate the rich with a holiday by the sea.
With the democratisation of holidays low cost guest houses and camping sites
made their appearance on the outskirts of the town. The ‘grand’ families gradually
quit Hendaye and their place was taken by less ‘grand’ but nevertheless wealthy
bourgeois families from Paris, Bordeaux and Toulouse.
The interlude was brief. With the arrival of WWII Hendaye was occupied the
Wehrmacht. The leaders of the two key protagonists visited Hendaye; Hitler in
1941, to meet Franco, and Winston Churchill in 1945, to recover following his
electoral defeat.
Hendaye started its long road to recovery in the late fifties. The memory of past
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glory was certainly a motivating factor when the town hall launched its renewal
programme with the construction of a marina together with a residential and hotel
complex in the eighties. Then the entry of Spain into the EU brought a welcome
fillip, opening the frontier and bringing a flow of new money to the town.
After decades of Franco’s stifling regime, the opening of the frontier introduced a
quarter of a century of prosperity and growth for the town. Hendaye’s Spanish
neighbours discovered a world different to their own and were soon snapping up
apartments in the town’s new residential developments.
In 2009, the effects of the simmering economic crisis struck southern Europe.
Then slowly but surely the ambitions of the town hall to restore Hendaye to its past
glory faltered. Its most important project, ‘Entre Puentes’, was in peril as the crisis
started to bite. Already property prices were falling as many of the town’s Spanish
residents were hit, directly or indirectly, by the growing economic quagmire in
their home country.
The media, as always, encouraged sensational rumours announcing Spain’s exit
from the euro grew as its economy went from bad to worse, pushing many
Spaniards to open bank accounts in France ― of all places, to safeguard their
savings.