Accous
Accous is a Béarnais French commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwestern France. Accous is located some 30 km south of Oloron-Sainte-Marie in the Aspe Valley, one of the three valleys of the High-Béarn, the other valleys being the Ossau Valley in the east and Barétous valley in the west. From the Spanish border on its southern edge, it stretches along Le Labadie river to the point where it joins the Gave d'Aspe. From this river junction, the Gave d'Aspe forms the western border of the rest of the commune which extends a further 10 kilometres to the east with the Lac du Montagnon at the northeastern edge; the commune is accessed from the north by the E7 motorway. This highway follows the western border of the commune along the Gave d'Aspe crosses the narrow neck of the commune before continuing to the Spanish border near Candanchu. To access Accous village it is necessary to follow one of a number of country roads - the Daban Athas road being the most direct.
Apart from country roads within the commune there is no other road access. The commune is traversed by some tributaries of the Gave d'Oloron, the Besse stream and the Gave d'Aspe, as well as tributaries of the latter such as the Gave Lescun and the Berthe; the Cotcharas stream and its tributary, the Congaets stream flow in the territory of Accous, as tributaries of the Gave d'Aydius, the Gave de Bouren and the Sahun stream. Accous is dominated by the Poey, a conical hill covered with ferns; the Poey is made of ophites. These green and harsh volcanic rocks from the Triassic belong to dolerites, they have resisted the erosion of torrential rivers. This is the reason; the name Accous appears in the following forms: Aspa Luca Achoss and Achost Acos Aquos d'Aspe Aquos Abadie de Cos Sanctus Martinus de Acous Acous. The name of the commune in Gascon is Acós. Brigitte Jobbé-Duval hypothesises that Accous originated from Acca or Acco, a woman's name mentioned in the inscriptions of Spain; the name Appatie came from the Lay Abbey of Jouers throygh corruption of the word Abbadie.
Note that in the Aspe Valley the voiceless consonants of Latin are preserved. This fief was a vassal of the Viscounts of Béarn. Le Bois d'Arapoup is attested in 1863 in the Topographical Dictionary. Aület is mentioned in the form Aulet in 1863 by the Topographical Dictionary. Lhers is cited in the dictionary; the name La Berthe, a tributary of the Gave d'Aspe, is cited in the dictionary of 1863. Despourrins is mentioned in 1863 in the Topographical Dictionary as a name taken from the poet Cyprien Despourrins, buried there. Izaure was a farm mentioned by Paul Raymond with the spellings: Usaure, Ixaure and Isaure. Jouers /juèrs/ was Joertz a metathesis of a Basque word Oïhartz a derivative of Oihan meaning'forest', it is found in the spelling Joers Jouers, again Joers. The Col de Lourtica is the name of a hill between the communes of Aydius. Saint-Christau was a chapel, mentioned by the dictionary of 1863. Tillabé was a place in Accous reported by the dictionary in 1863 and mentioned in the 18th century 2 in the form Le Tillaber.
Paul Raymond said that Tillabé "was the place of meeting of the aldermen of the Aspe valley". Paul Raymond noted that the commune had a vassal of the Viscounts of Béarn. In 1385, there were 74 "fires". Accous was the capital of the Aspe valley. List of Successive Mayors of Accous The town is part of five inter-communal organisations: the community of communes of the Aspe Valley the Energy union in the Pyrenees-Atlantiques the Television union of Oloron - Aspe Valley the inter-communal union to aid education in the Aspe Valley the joint union of Upper-Béarn. Accous has twinning associations with: Valle de Hecho since 1978. Population change Sources: Ldh/EHESS/Cassini until 1962, INSEE database from 1968 The economy of the town is oriented toward agriculture and animal husbandry; the cheese-making farms are one of the resources of the commune, part of the Appellation d'origine contrôlée zone designation of Ossau-iraty. The Toyal plant, located at the edge of the commune, provides income to Accous through business tax, making of it the richest communes in the valley.
This activity has created hundreds of jobs in the valley. The 2006 INSEE classification, indicated that the median household incomes for each municipality with more than 50 households ranked Accous at 24495, for an average income per household of €14,199. Accous has a number of old farms registered as historical monuments; these are: House at Rue de Baix House 1 at Rue de Haut House 2 at Rue de Haut House at Rue Madrih The Accous railway station on the Pau to Canfranc line has been closed to traffic since 1970. The eco-museum of the Aspe valley is located in an old cheese fa
Biron, Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Biron is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in southwestern France. Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department INSEE
Communes of France
The commune is a level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are analogous to civil townships and incorporated municipalities in the United States and Canada, Gemeinden in Germany, comuni in Italy or ayuntamiento in Spain; the United Kingdom has no exact equivalent, as communes resemble districts in urban areas, but are closer to parishes in rural areas where districts are much larger. Communes are based on historical geographic communities or villages and are vested with significant powers to manage the populations and land of the geographic area covered; the communes are the fourth-level administrative divisions of France. Communes vary in size and area, from large sprawling cities with millions of inhabitants like Paris, to small hamlets with only a handful of inhabitants. Communes are based on pre-existing villages and facilitate local governance. All communes have names, but not all named geographic areas or groups of people residing together are communes, the difference residing in the lack of administrative powers.
Except for the municipal arrondissements of its largest cities, the communes are the lowest level of administrative division in France and are governed by elected officials with extensive autonomous powers to implement national policy. A commune is city, or other municipality. "Commune" in English has a historical bias, implies an association with socialist political movements or philosophies, collectivist lifestyles, or particular history. There is nothing intrinsically different between commune in French; the French word commune appeared in the 12th century, from Medieval Latin communia, for a large gathering of people sharing a common life. As of January 2015, there were 36,681 communes in France, 36,552 of them in metropolitan France and 129 of them overseas; this is a higher total than that of any other European country, because French communes still reflect the division of France into villages or parishes at the time of the French Revolution. The whole territory of the French Republic is divided into communes.
This is unlike some other countries, such as the United States, where unincorporated areas directly governed by a county or a higher authority can be found. There are only a few exceptions: COM of Saint-Martin, it was a commune inside the Guadeloupe région. The commune structure was abolished when Saint-Martin became an overseas collectivity on 22 February 2007. COM of Wallis and Futuna, which still is divided according to the three traditional chiefdoms. COM of Saint Barthélemy, it was a commune inside the Guadeloupe region. The commune structure was abolished when Saint-Barthélemy became an overseas collectivity on 22 February 2007. Furthermore, two regions without permanent habitation have no communes: TOM of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands Clipperton Island in the Pacific Ocean In metropolitan France, the average area of a commune in 2004 was 14.88 square kilometres. The median area of metropolitan France's communes at the 1999 census was smaller, at 10.73 square kilometres. The median area is a better measure of the area of a typical French commune.
This median area is smaller than that of most European countries. In Italy, the median area of communes is 22 km2. Switzerland and the Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringia in Germany were the only places in Europe where the communes had a smaller median area than in France; the communes of France's overseas départements such as Réunion and French Guiana are large by French standards. They group into the same commune several villages or towns with sizeable distances among them. In Réunion, demographic expansion and sprawling urbanization have resulted in the administrative splitting of some communes; the median population of metropolitan France's communes at the 1999 census was 380 inhabitants. Again this is a small number, here France stands apart in Europe, with the lowest communes' median population of all the European countries; this small median population of French communes can be compared with Italy, where the median population of communes in 2001 was 2,343 inhabitants, Belgium, or Spain.
The median population given here should not hide the fact that there are pronounced differences in size between French communes. As mentioned in the introduction, a commune can be a city of 2 million inhabitants such as Paris, a town of 10,000 inhabitants, or just a hamlet of 10 inhabitants. What the median population tells us is that the vast majority of the French communes only have a few hundred inhabitants. In metropolitan France just over 50 percent of the 36,683 communes have fewer than 500 inhabitants a
Abidos, Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Abidos is a French commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwestern France. Abidos is a Béarnais commune located some 13 km south-east of Orthez and 4 km north of Mourenx on the south side of the Gave de Pau. Access to the commune is by the D31 road from Le Bourguet in the north turning west in the commune to access the village and continuing southwest to join the D9; the D33 road from Noguères in the southeast passes through the commune east of the village and joins the D31 as it turns west. The commune has an industrial area in the southwest with the rest of the commune farmland; the Gave de Pau forms the north-eastern border of the commune and passes through the northern corner of the commune as it flows north-west to join the Gave d'Oloron at Peyrehorade. The Baïse river flows through the centre of the commune from the southeast and joins the Gave de Pau in the commune; the Luzoué flows from the southeast through the west of the commune to join the Gave de Pau.
Bastia Bernacheyre Chalosse Joanlong Pleasure Us The name Abidos appears in the forms: Avitos in the 11th century, Pierre de Marca and around 1100 and in the Cartulary of the Abbey of Lucq. Avitoss was another form around 1100, Cartulary of the Abbey of Lucq-de-Béarn. *Avezos appeared around 1100 in the Cartulary of the Abbey of Lucq-de-Béarn Avidoos in the 13th century in the Fors de Béarn Sent-Sadarnii of Abidos in 1344 Notaries of Pardies Bidos and Bydos in 1548, Reformation of Béarn Abidos on the Cassini Map of 1750Michel Grosclaude offers a Latin etymology of Avitus plus the Aquitaine suffix -ossum "domain of Avitus". Its name in Béarnais is Avidos. Paul Raymond notes that in 1385, Abidos had 18 fires and depended on the bailiwicks of Lagor and Pardies. Abidos had a castle with an attached door across the Pau river. List of Successive Mayors of Abidos Abidos is a member of seven inter-communal organisations: the community of communes of Lacq SIVU for the development and management of the river basin of Baïses AEP union for water and Baise.
Population change Sources: Ldh/EHESS/Cassini until 1962, INSEE database from 1968 The 2006 classification by INSEE, indicated that the median household incomes for each municipality with more than 50 households classed Abidos to rank at No. 10,338, with an average income of €17,174. The town is part of the zone designation of Ossau-iraty. There is an old chapel at Abidos castle. An arboretum created by the community of communes of Lacq and the Abengoa BioEnergy France company, is located behind the village hall. Found in Abydos, a mill with its canal; the path of Naöu means an unencumbered way along the Pau river. The commune has a school with two classrooms for primary school, a school canteen, a library; the town has a sports field in the centre with a football field, basketball court, volleyball court, tennis courts. There is a sports hall equipped for basketball and Basque pelota. Lastly there is a roller skate park for BMX edge of the Baise. Raoul Vergez was born in Abidos on 3 August 1908 and died in Senlis on 7 July 1977.
He was writer and journalist. Known by the name of "Béarnais, the friend of the Tour de France", he left an important mark on the work of the Companions in France, he reported from the United States during a trip in 1952, some special techniques for companion carpenters. Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department Abidos on Géoportail, National Geographic Institute website Abidos on the 1750 Cassini Map Abidos on the INSEE website INSEE
Béarn
Béarn is one of the traditional provinces of France, located in the Pyrenees mountains and in the plain at their feet, in southwest France. Along with the three Basque provinces of Soule, Lower Navarre, Labourd, the principality of Bidache, as well as small parts of Gascony, it forms in the southwest the current département of Pyrénées-Atlantiques; the capitals of Béarn were Beneharnum, Morlaàs, Orthez Pau. Béarn is bordered by Basque provinces Soule and Lower Navarre to the west, by Gascony to the north, by Bigorre to the east, by Spain to the south. Today, the mainstays of the Béarn area are the petroleum industry, the aerospace industry through the helicopter turboshaft engine manufacturer Turbomeca and agriculture. Pau was the birthplace of Elf Aquitaine, which has now become a part of the Total S. A. petroleum company. In Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers series, the protagonist d'Artagnan came from Béarn; that d'Artagnan is referred to as a Gascon is neither surprising nor incorrect, as Béarn forms part of Gascony.
In the eastern part of the province are two small exclaves belonging to Bigorre. They are the result of how early Béarn grew to its traditional boundaries: some old lesser viscounties were added by marriage, absorbed into Béarn: Oloron to the south/southwest ca. 1050, Montanérès in the east in 1085, Dax in the west in 1194. When Montanérès was added, five communities or parishes did not form part of the dowry, their attachment to Bigorre continues to the present, as they followed it into Hautes-Pyrénées, rather than being incorporated into the surrounding Pyrénées-Atlantiques. The name Béarn derives from Beneharnum, the capital city of the ancient Venarni people, destroyed by Vikings by 840; the modern town of Lescar is built on the site of Beneharnum. Agriculture and metallurgy were first practiced in the region around 4,000 years ago. Many dolmens and megaliths have been found in Béarn dating to this era, suggesting that ancestor worship was an important religious activity in neolithic Béarn.
Construction of cromlêhs in Béarn continued into the Bronze Age. Fortified villages were constructed in Neolithic Béarn, remains of these have been found near Asson and Lacq. Béarn was occupied by Ligurians around 3000 years ago. By 500 BC, Iberians appear to have replaced the Ligurians; the names of several towns in Béarn end in - os. The region became part of the Roman Empire in the first century BC. Diocletian included Bearn in the Roman province of Novempopulania. Roman influence in the region waned in the fifth century AD, Béarn experienced multiple barbarian invasions. Béarn was successively conquered by the Vandals, the Visigoths, the Merovingians and the Carolingians; the fifth century AD saw the arrival of Christianity in Béarn. The rural character of Béarn meant that Christianity took longer to become established there than elsewhere in France. Béarn is served by two autoroutes; the A64 was built in 1977 and links Pau and Bayonne. In Béarn, the A64 has junctions serving the towns of Salies-de-Béarn, Artix and Soumoulou.
The A65 links Pau with Langon. It serves the Béarnese towns of Thèze and Garlin. At Langon, the A65 joins on to the A62; the A65 was opened in 2010, was at the time France's most expensive autoroute. Several more minor routes serve Béarn; the Route Nationale 134 links the south of Pau with Somport in the Aspe Valley. Several mountain roads link Somport with Spain. Three railway lines serve Béarn; the first of these is the Toulouse to Bayonne railway, opened in stages between 1861 and 1867. Several rail stations are located on this line, including those of Coarraze-Nay, Pau, Artix and Puyoô; the Puyoô to Dax railway line enables trains to run from Béarn to Bordeaux. Both these railway lines are served by TGV, Intercités and TER; the third railway line, the Pau to Canfranc line, serves the south of Béarn. It was put into service between 1883 and 1928. However, the railway line been closed since 1970; this is because in 1970, a bridge carrying this rail line over the Gave d'Aspe was destroyed by a train derailment.
An additional section of the line, between Oloron-Sainte-Marie and Bedous, was reopened by SNCF in 2016. Canfranc Railway Station is located within Spain and is served by the Spanish Jaca to Canfranc railway. International rail transport between Béarn and Aragon was thus possible using this route. In 2013, the regional governments of Aragon and Aquitaine agreed to take steps to further the economic links between their two regions, including reopening the Pau-Canfranc railway line all the way to Canfranc Station; the two governments hope to have the line reopened by 2020. A fourth railway line once linked Puyoô rail station to that of Mauléon-Licharre; this line opened in two stages between 1884 and 1887. The line was abandoned in 1991. A branch of this line ran from Autevielle to Saint-Palais; this branch is also
Maslacq
Maslacq is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France. Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department INSEE
Castétis
Castétis is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France. Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department INSEE
