Once upon a time...

Basque Roots

When Diana's Amachi (grandmother in Basque) told her stories about how she had to walk miles over hills and fields to school each morning to the closest village (Banca) and how the family house floorboards were directly above the barn where the cows, sheep, chickens and whoever slept each night, she could only dream about what that might look like. No one had ever gone back to the old country once landed in America.

About a decade after Amachi passed, I proposed a trip to discover Diana's Basque roots. And away we went in 1986 having gathered every tidbit of information that still remain from stories that older sister Julie and cousin Kay remembered to find that little mountain village of Banca and the fabled home called Tippitonia. Diana's oldest sister Julie, who had never before even thought of leaving the country got her passport and joined us. Flying into Paris that April I took us on a self-guided tour of the great wine regions of France starting with the Champagne, then Chablis, the Burgundy, the Beaujolais, the Rhone, Languedoc and onto the provinces of the Basque Country that lie in France.

I'll carry on with the story as soon as I can ...