Quai Ravel, the Bordagain heights, Socoa, the Untxin quarter. We search on your behalf, off-market included, from first conversation to completion.
Ciboure was not always a town. It was first a quarter of Urrugne, from which it won its independence in 1603, under Henri IV, to become a place in its own right — with its harbour, its church, its market and its pelota court. Its Basque name, Zubiburu, means 'bridgehead': it stands at the end of the bridge over the Nivelle, between the ocean and the Bordagain hill. It shares the bay with its neighbour on the right bank without ever having merged into it. Two histories, one stretch of water — and a building stock that belongs to it alone.
Three families share the town. The Labourd houses of the quay, in the bright colours fishermen used so they could pick them out from the sea. The stone houses of the old lanes, around rue Pocalette and the church. And the villas of the heights, some of them signed — villa Leihorra and villa Lehen Tokia are among the finest Art déco work on this coast.
This is what sets Ciboure apart from its neighbour. The town climbs from the water to the eighty metres at the Bordagain tower, and that gradient governs everything: what the house sees, the light it takes, the shelter it enjoys. Two addresses three hundred metres apart may have no view in common.
The territory is held between the Nivelle, the ocean, the hill and the Urrugne boundary. The old village is protected and its fabric will not spread. What a Ciboure owner holds today is exactly what they will hold tomorrow.
Ciboure and Luzien families who have known the bay all their lives. Buyers who want the harbour and the sea on foot, in the intimacy of the left bank. And lovers of period building, drawn by one particular fisherman's house or a signed villa.
The Labourd houses facing the bay and the old lanes around the church of Saint-Vincent.
The hill rising to eighty metres, its signed villas and its view across the whole bay.
The fishermen's quarter, its beach sheltered by the breakwater, its fort and its lighthouse.
The neighbouring town, across the bridge, five minutes on foot.
A Sunday morning, you walk back from the market on place Camille-Jullian, the tide is out in the harbour, and you can hear the pelota court from the street.
The quay or the heights, the fisherman's house or the villa, the harbour on foot or the view across the whole bay. In Ciboure, the altitude you choose determines nearly everything else.
The town is small and owners know one another. Notaires, neighbours and shopkeepers keep us informed early, and many houses pass on before any listing is considered.
We visit, we record true orientation, the condition of the period fabric, the slope of the ground and what the view reaches at that precise altitude. You view only what lives up to its description.
Through to completion, alongside your notaire. We negotiate for you, and for you alone — never for the seller.
No. In Ciboure, altitude and aspect weigh more than floor area: two houses of the same size, one on the quay and one halfway up Bordagain, share neither view, nor light, nor shelter. We start from the address, the slope and the generation of the building.
They are two distinct towns, separated by the bridge over the Nivelle and five minutes apart on foot. Ciboure offers the harbour, the heights and a more village-like life; its neighbour, a larger commercial centre. Many of our clients visit both before choosing.
The old village benefits from a heritage framework that has preserved its character — which is precisely what gives it value today. We establish for each property what that framework allows, so you know exactly what you are entering into.
Yes, and in a town of this size it is often decisive. The finest Ciboure houses change hands rarely, and many pass on through the local network without ever appearing.
Agreed in advance and transparent. For a search mandate they fall due only on acquisition. The detail is set out at our first meeting.
One call is enough to frame your search in Ciboure. We reply personally within 48 hours, in complete confidence.
07 86 71 33 13Ciboure is one of the towns we work in. We cover many others across the Pays Basque, and we hold a certain idea of what this profession should be, better told elsewhere than on this page.
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