Pariseko Eskual Etxea - La Maison Basque de Paris

The Maison Basque de Paris was opened in 1956 by the young Basques who worked in the city as domestic servants, waiters or on the metro. It began with two letters: in 1952 Jeanne Idiart, a domestic servant, and Pierre Charriton, a waiter, each wrote to the chaplain of Eskualdun Gazteria, worried about how the newcomers were living. In June 1955 they put down a deposit on a former laundry at 10 rue Duban without having the money to pay for it, and the house opened there on 22 April 1956. In 2002 it bought five buildings on the avenue Gabriel-Péri in Saint-Ouen, next to Paris, where in 2010 it had a hostel for Basques under thirty. It brings together some ten Basque associations in Paris, such as Eskualduna, Gazteria, Gernika and Sustraiak; the Basque Government recognised it on 7 May 1996, and the register credits it with 607 members.