[3] Saint-Jean-de-Luz is a fishing port on the Basque coast and now a famous resort, known for its architecture, sandy bay, the quality of the light and the cuisine.

Thanks to its strong sea walls or dykes that protect the town from the full savagery of the Atlantic Ocean, it has become a favorite for bathers across the Basque Coast.

Although the seaside resort is relatively recent, the port itself is centuries old, with the most prominent point in its history being the marriage in 1660 of Louis XIV and the Spanish princess Maria Teresa.

A branch of the Uhabia, an emblematic river in the neighbouring Bidart district, and its smaller Amisola tributary, also pass to the sea through St Jean de Luz.

Its wealth stems from its port and its past, with the town being associated with both fishing, and with the capture of vessels by its own Basque corsaires, or pirates (English sailors used to call Saint-Jean-de-Luz the "Viper's Nest").

In 1659, Cardinal Mazarin spent several months in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, from where he would embark on almost daily trips to Pheasant Island in the river Bidassoa (near modern-day Hendaye) for Franco-Spanish meetings that resulted in the Treaty of the Pyrenees, one clause of which was the marriage of Louis XIV to Maria Theresa, the Infanta of Spain.

A more popular theory among the locals is that the king, Louis XIV, ordered the door to be closed off, so no other couple could walk into the church to be married in his footsteps.

The composer Maurice Ravel, a native of the nearby town of Ciboure, frequently vacationed at Saint-Jean-de-Luz from Paris, where he was centered for almost his entire life.

Following Marshal Pétain's call for an armistice on the outset of World War II, a coastal fringe of the Basque Country fell in the German occupation area.

One of these, built alongside the Quai de L'Infante around 1640, is called the "Maison Joanoenea", and it is here that the Queen Mother, Anne of Austria, stayed before the marriage of Louis XIV to Maria Theresa, the Infanta of Spain on 8 May 1660.

This second plaque commemorates the importance of the work of French escape networks which helped people evade capture in Occupied France during World War II.

Nowadays, St-Jean-de-Luz depends strongly on tourism with safe clean beaches, notable high quality hotels and a seawater spa, swimming pools, a casino, golf courses and a conference centre that is under construction.

It also attracts a large number of visitors from Basque Country, Spain, or Gipuzkoa along with many from nearby Bayonne and the rest of southwestern France.

Labouring in the forests of the Basque country gave rise to the challenge known as aizkolariak (based on lumberjacks working with an ax or arpanariak), as well as athletic sawing of tree stumps and wood.