One of my students is of Basque descent. His antepasados came from Yrun. He would really like to know something about the place: history, scenery, ambiente...whatever. does
anyone know the city well enough to be able to help me?

[ 02-01-2002: Message edited by: MadridMan ]

Hi, la maestra!

I've got two news for you, a good one and a bad one. The good one is that ... I'm from Irún! and the bad one is that my English level is very low and it costs me a huge effort to write a few lines

But... don't worry, be happy I'll try to tell you everything about my hometown.

I'm going to heat my fingers (and my brain) to write

Irun is on the Spain-France border. On the France side it's Hendaye. It's a coastal town, just north of San Sebastian so I guess that puts it in the Province of Guipuzcoa. I don't know if it's Irun or Yrun in Euskera

Hola La Maestra! I did a quick google search and came up with the following link which is the official website of Irún. Unfortunately it isn´t in English. It´s in Castellano and Euskara which should prove interesting for your student!

Saludos!
http://www.irun.org/flash.html

Hi again!.

The city name is Irún (in Spanish) or Irun in Euskera. We are iruneses/as (in Spanish) or irundarrak (in Euskera).

Yes, our city is in the frontier with Francia. The river Bidasoa is the frontier and the french city at the other side of the river is Hendaia. In the middle of the river, there's a little island called "La isla de los faisanes" and both countries share the island.

If I were pessimistic I would say that we don't have a beach , but I'm optimist and I'll say that we have two beaches, one in Hondarribia (the nearest city to us in Spain, just 3 kilometers from Irún to their beach) and another one in Hendaia (the same distance to their beach).

The best of our city are our Fiestas. The main day is on the 30th of June, los San Marciales. ¡GORA! That day, we spend all day long walking, and walking in a parade. Each neighborhood is a "compañía". A compañía is a bunch of men and just one girl, that girl is called "La Cantinera".

Las cantineras are the most important thing in our fiestas. Each compañía chooses a cantinera one month before the fiesta (more or less), and they appear in loads of magazines and posters that are delivered to each house. After these photographs appears, all the citizens start talking about these girls (this one is more beautiful than that other, and ... all those tipical things).

There are two parades, one early in the morning (about 7 a.m.) and the other in the afternoon (about 5 p.m.) All the compañías parade one after the other and all of them go after our General. In all we are about 10000 soldiers. As you can realize, if all the city men are walking in the parade, all the city girls are watching us on the streets (and all the french people that comes to see the parade)

Bye!

Thanks Hombre Gizon! Your English is quite good, and the information about your hometown was first rate.

Hombre_Gizon (and all those who replied!) thank you SO much for the information! I passed it on to my student and he will check the website as well. His Spanish is good for a second year student, though that will not be quite enough to get him through a web site! He says his mother may be able to read it. They've been talking about making a trip to Spain for over a year. Perhaps this will be enough to get them going!

The story he tells is that the city got its name from his ancestors. His family here spells the name Yrun. That tends to happen with names in the US...Vaca becomes Baca, that sort of thing!

By the way, your English is very good!