Those of us who like antiques or vintage pieces are very fortunate to have a Brocante market just half an hour’s drive away. On the third Sunday of every month in Ahetze, a small and charming town in Iparralde, located between San Juan de Luz and Sempere, there is an antiques market in the purest ‘flea market’ style, quite extensive, where you can find very special, original and curious things at really low prices.
The more I visit, the more I like it and I always find something different that really fills me up. I enjoy browsing the stalls at a slow pace while I eat a delicious sweetened crêpe with a delicious coffee that they prepare so well at the street bar at the back of the fair and I continue my tour while listening to a nice piece of music that helps you enjoy the simple stroll while you engage in different conversations with the nice vendors and always get a friendly smile.
You go back to your youth when you try to choose between the hundreds of vinyl records harmoniously arranged in wooden boxes by musical categories or try on fantastic leather hats with an eighties look. Wonderful crockery, beautiful linen table linen, leather jackets, accessories from the 20s and 30s, a wide variety of clothes, fantastic antique books and thousands of different decorative elements, all of which add soul and history wherever you place them.
In addition to this market, Ahetze is a small village of 2,000 inhabitants, surrounded by sea and mountains, which invites you to come and enjoy its labordin style architecture, where you will find beautiful white and red façades built in the 17th century and its architectural heritage and historical interest. All this makes a visit to this small town very pleasant and interesting.
What better plan than to combine these market hours with a visit to the beaches of Guétary or Bidart if the weather allows or to the welcoming, lively and dynamic Bayonne to lose yourself in its cobbled, ancient and narrow streets surrounded by houses decorated with beams and shutters in bright colours!
Enjoy Ahetze and transport yourself back in time!