Bardos (; ) is énéa commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of south-western France. It is part of the former Basque province of Labourd.
The inhabitants of the commune are known as Bardoztars.
Geography
Bardos is located some 15 km east of Bayonne just south of Guiche. The north-eastern tip of the commune is also the departmental border between Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Landes. Access to the commune is by the D936 road from Briscous in the west which passes through the heart of the commune and the town and continues east to Bidache. The D253 goes north from the town to Guiche. The D318 goes south from the town to join the D123 west of Orègue. The D10 branches off the D936 in the west of the commune and goes south to La Bastide-Clairence. The A64 autoroute (E80) passes through the north of the commune with the nearest exit being Exit which exits to the D936 just 1 km to the west of the commune. The commune is mostly farmland with scattered forested areas particularly on the slopes.
The town is served by the interurban network of Pyrénées-Atlantiques (Transports 64) by route 811 to Bayonne and Tardets-Sorholus.
There is a dense network of streams across the whole commune. The north-eastern tip of the commune has the Bidouze as the communal and the departmental border. The Ruisseau d'Ermou flows through the commune and joins the Bidouze at the north-eastern tip of the commune. The Ruisseau du Termi forms much of the northern border as it flows north-west to join the Adour north of the commune. Numerous other streams rise in the commune and flow north to the Adour. The Lihoury river forms part of the south-eastern border of the commune as it flows north, fed by the Laharanne, and joins the Bidouze east of Bidache. The Ruisseau d'Appât rises in the commune and flows south to join the Lihoury. The Arbéroue forms much of the southern border of the commune as it flows east to join the Lihoury. The Aran forms most of the western border of the commune as it flows north then turns west to join the Adour. Numerous streams flow in the heart of the commune including the Ruisseau d'Artigue, the Ithurriague, and the Bardolle.
Geology and terrain
The area of the commune is 4,253 hectares with a maximum altitude of 186 m on the Miremont hill which is the location of an old 14th century mansion as well as a water tower built on a panoramic viewpoint overlooking the Adour valley.
Climate
The climate of Bardos, some twenty kilometres from the Basque coast, is relatively similar to that of Biarritz with fairly heavy rainfall: the oceanic climate due to its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean. The average winter temperature is around 8 °C and around 20 °C in summer. The lowest temperature recorded was -12.7 °C on 16 January 1985 and the highest 40.6 °C on 4 August 2003. Rain on the Basque coast is rarely persistent except during winter storms. It often takes the form of intense thunderstorms of short duration.
Places and hamlets
On the Napoleonic Cadastral Map of 1818 the commune was divided into four sections: Section A, Lassarrade Section B, Legarre Section C, Lerine Section D, Ibar
Today, although the division into districts is not precise, there are seven districts: Arbinoritz le Bourg Ibarre Lambert Lassarrade Miremont les Tisserands
Town planning
Housing
In 2011 the total number of dwellings in the commune was 716, down from 611 in 2006.
Of these dwellings, 87% were primary residences, 6.6% were second homes, and 6.3% were occasional homes or vacant units. 69.4% of these dwellings were detached houses and 29.6% were apartments.
The proportion of principle residences owned by their occupants was 74%. The percentage of empty rental public housing was 1.3%.
Toponymy
The commune name in Basque is Bardoze and its name in Occitan, gascon dialect is Bardòs.
The name consists of the root bard- or bart- which designates the low terrain and clay soils along the river edges (barthe is from the Gaulish anthroponym bardus) plus the Basque-Aquitaine suffix -os. Jean-Baptiste Orpustan proposes the meaning "place of abundant clay soil".
The following table details the origins of the commune name and other names in the commune.
Sources: Raymond: Topographic Dictionary of the Department of Basses-Pyrenees, 1863, on the page numbers indicated in the table. Orpustan: Jean-Baptiste Orpustan, New Basque Toponymy p. 21 Lhande: Basque-French Dictionary
Origins: Bayonne: Cartulary of Bayonne or Livre d'Or (Book of Gold) Collations: Collations of the Diocese of Bayonne Bardos: Titles of Bardos Navarre: Titles of the Kingdom of Navarre