Le bout du monde – "the end of the earth" – is what they used to call the tiny settlement of STE-ENGRÂCE, locked in its cul-de-sac valley beneath the Spanish frontier at the easternmost extremity of the Basque country. And, although a road runs through it to Arette-la-Pierre-St-Martin, the place remains beautifully remote and peaceful. Life is not so idyllic for the locals – there's no work and the young won't stay – but for an outsider not caught in the rural poverty trap, it has great charm.Ste-Engrâce's hallmark is the eleventh-century Romanesque church in the hamlet of SENTA, which features in all the coffee-table books on the Pyrenees. It stands just as it should, with its heavily buttressed walls, belfry and penthouse roof, a sharply defined and angular assertion of humanity against the often mist-shrouded bulwarks of the mountains behind. Very simple inside, it has some good carved column capitals, and the graveyard is full of traditional disc-shaped headstones. There's a gîte d'étape opposite the church, the Auberge Elichalt (tel 05.59.28.61.63), with a few chambres d'hôte (€30–40), a back garden to pitch a tent and a café-bar that serves light meals. The road up to the ski resort of ARETTE-LA-PIERRE-ST-MARTIN gives fabulous views of the valley of Ste-Engrâce, through magnificent forests of pine and beech, though if the cloud is down, which it often is, you'll be lucky to see much at all. At a little col with a three-way junction, you're already in the ancient county of Béarn, and can glimpse the descent east into the Vallée d'Aspe. The upper, right-hand turning leads into Arette, an ugly ski resort with eighteen pistes, and the excellent Refuge-Gîte d'Étape Jeandel or Hourticq (tel 05.59.66.14.46; open all year by arrangement), mostly serving trekkers on the GR10, with enthusiastic management and meals (May to mid-Oct). The skiing here is better than you'd imagine at the modest altitude (2153m top point), owing to moist Atlantic exposure and some quite long runs for beginners and intermediates. There are also two nordic skiing areas nearby. Alternate spellings:: France, Ste-Engrāce , Ste-Engrâce , Ste-Engrace
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