In the Footsteps of Smugglers

My Life on a Basque Mountain

Georgina Howard

• Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides
• Year: 2024
• ISBN:
  9781804692868
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

After eight years living in Copenhagen, an English journalist, driven by a passion for languages and mountains, finally rebels. With little more than an assortment of Earl Grey teabags, Danish candles and a map, Georgina Howard abandons her all-too-cosy, cinnamon-scented lifestyle and drives south.

The journey leads to wild and craggy landscapes in the Basque Pyrenees on the French/Spanish border, where place names are written in a bizarre, foreign tongue full of 'x's and 'z's. Losing her heart to this beautiful land and her pride to the inscrutability of the language, Howard moves into an isolated barn in a mountain hamlet. While pagan festivals reverberate through the valleys, her Basque neighbours – farmers, shepherds, a gravedigger and a champion female lumberjack – observe her, bemused.

Only when her daughter, Marion, is born – after an unsuccessful relationship with an eccentric Basque miller – do Howard's neighbours drop their reserve and welcome her into their homes. Taking Marion's upbringing upon themselves, they fatten her up on spicy Basque sausages and black bean stews, teach her Basque nursery rhymes and train her to milk sheep. Meanwhile, Howard converts a barn into the headquarters of an international business providing walking, culture and language tours. Resigned to the ineptitude of their new neighbour, with patience and amusement, the locals tow her car out of ditches and teach her how to stack wood, catch mice, unblock septic tanks and drink wine from a leather gourd.

In the Footsteps of Smugglers follows the adventures of an outsider: a single mother, linguist, cosmopolitan nomad and cultural chameleon who paradoxically makes her home among an indigenous people deeply rooted in their land, with a language and culture dating back to Stone-Age times. Unwittingly, she repays their hospitality by luring anti-terrorist squads, blackmailers and spies into their midst as the dramatic past of the Basque Country proves to have unexpected and far-reaching consequences. An inspiring, humorous travel memoir, Bradt's In the Footsteps of Smugglers weaves behind-the-scenes vignettes of daily rural life and historical research to produce authentic insights on all things Basque, threaded with a rhapsody on the theme of identity.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Author Biography
• Contents
• The Basque Country – a Question of Definition
• Prologue: My Life on a Basque Mountain
• Part 1: Scandinavia
• Chapter 1: Heading North – The Wheelchair in the Snow
• Part 2: The Basque Country
• Chapter 2: Heading South – Alice in Wonderland
• Chapter 3: Navarre and the Basques – Heading into the Beyond
• Chapter 4: Marketing – Telephones and Witches
• Chapter 5: The Baztan Valley – Noble Peasants, Pilgrims and Cider
• Chapter 6: Finding the Walks – Chocolate Croissants, Maps and Cold Cups of Tea
• Chapter 7: The Guests Arrive – Mutiny in the Kitchen
• Chapter 8: People – Sheiks and Silver Robots
• Chapter 9: A Basque Fiesta – As Good as it Gets
• Chapter 10: A New Valley – The Grandmother, the Miller and the Ostrich
• Part 3: My Basque Mountain
• Chapter 11: A House with a View – The Turtle on the Tap
• Chapter 12: My Basque Village – The Hello Kitty Fountain
• Chapter 13: A Basque Baby – A Fairy Godmother with an Axe
• Chapter 14: My Neighbours – The Wellington Boot in the Snow
• Chapter 15: Local History – Tin Cows and Tadpoles
• Chapter 16: The Seasons – British Unpunctuality
• Chapter 17 Basque Borders and the Comet Line – Eggnogs and Petticoats
• Chapter 18: Mother and Baby – Snakes, Toothpaste Tubes and the Moon
• Chapter 19: Culture Shock – Maggots in the Toy Chest
• Chapter 20: A Family Business – Hangman and the Unfortunate Word
• Chapter 21: The Basque Language – Strawberry Ice Creams and Greedy Pigs
• Chapter 22: The Village Calendar – Wheelbarrow Races and Grumpy Coalmen
• Chapter 23: Ituren Church – Stories from Beyond the Grave
• Chapter 24: House and Home – Mushrooms and Marshmallows
• Chapter 25: Gilbert: An Imposter in my Home – Music Boxes and Mountain Savages
• Chapter 26: Après Gilbert – Two Trees and a Headless Woman
• Epilogue One: Heading North Again
• Epilogue Two: Heading Home
• Endnote
• Back Cover