Along the Pyrenees (I) : Pheasant Island, the smallest condominium in the world.

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On the left side of the picture, Hendaye in France, on the right side, Irún in Spain. The two countries are separated by the Bidasoa River, and in the middle of the river there is a small island with an area of 0.00682 km2 (0.00263 sq mi), Pheasant Island. Since at least the 13th C this island has been used to sign treaties between France and Spain : treaties of good correspondence between French Basques and Spanish Basques allowing them to trade when their two countries were in war (many international rules applied today are born in these old treaties) ; peace treaties, the more important being the treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 ; this treaty decided that the island would be a joint sovereignty between France and Spain. Louis XIV met there his future wife, like his father Louis XIII before him in 1615. Louis XV met his intended bride, Mariana Victoria of Spain on Pheasant island in 1721, but she was a bit young, only 3 years old, and he preferred to marry a Polish girl. A monument that you see on the middle of the island commemorates the treaty of the Pyrenees. The actual condominium on the island has been specified by a treaty signed in Bayonne in 1856 and a convention from 1901. The island is under the sovereignty of Spain between February 1st and July 31, and of France between August 1st and January 31. It is administered by two vice-kings, who are the Navy officers commanding in Bordeaux for France, and in San-Sebastian for Spain. Every February 1st the French Navy transmits the power to the Spanish Navy, and the Spanish Navy does the same for the French Navy every August 1st. There is an International Commission in charge to solve borders problems. This commission has decided to alternatively grant the right to fish in the river to each country. Indeed, since there is no more customs and real borders between France and Spain, it is a bit folkloric today. It is usually possible to visit the island twice a year : there is a visit organized by Spain in July, and another one by France in September, the rest of the time, except when a treaty is signed between France and Spain (last time was in 2008 ; Hitler met Franco in Hendaye in 1940, though it was not on Pheasant Island but in the railway station : these two men were lacking of poetry), no visitors are allowed on the island, that you see very well from both banks.