With its companies, farms, associations and inns, Aldude’s remains a dynamic valley. The villages of Urepele, Aldude and Banka, around 300 inhabitants, are united between the mountains and will open the gates of the valley they organize each year between 10 and 13 October. The AIBA association also takes advantage of these holiday holidays to talk about deep and serious issues. The partnership was created in 2016 with the aim of reflecting together on the opportunities and obstacles to living in the people. On this occasion, they have chosen the theme of loneliness and a dozen people have joined the reflection. "For the remote valleys there is one issue that needs to be taken seriously," says the association's dynamism, Pascal Darrieumerlou. Obviously, when asking about loneliness, several ideas have emerged that may be contradictory: "One can only live one people, but not feel alone, another can be surrounded by people, but feel lonely... You can feel alone with ideas, identity or because they lived far from the heart of the people," says Danielle Hirigaray of the association. Next to her is Pantxo, her husband, who, pulling the idea, adds: "The negative aspects of loneliness led us to reflect on this issue, but in the end we see the two faces, not just the bad image of loneliness." In addition, one looks at the same issue and the other sees the damage and the other the advantages. Darrieumerlou has referred to the "generational collision" that occurs in social networks: between the generations of old who feel nostalgic by the old ways of relating, and vice versa, among the youngest ones who have social networks as a way to get out of solitude and relate. Along with loneliness, they have also wanted to address the issue of transmission, since, in the end, they are two issues that go hand in hand.

Apart from the relationship between people, geography also makes the issue reasonable. Between mountains, Urepele is almost twenty kilometers from Baigorri, slowly ascending towards the mountain, to the border that separates Alta Navarra from Baja Navarra. But as for the position, the feeling of being at the tip of the tip hasn't always felt so much. The outlook has changed: until recently relations with the peoples of Nafarroa Garaia were more common. The language – the Basque – also maintained a relationship with the aurizarras, eugi or zubiri on the other side of Sorogain. But among young people, the French have also lost the natural relationship that unites them with the Basque.

In recent months they have been reflecting on this, and both young and old, together with the testimonies of a dozen citizens, will offer a reflection to all of them, on 10 October, at the Alfaroenea inn in Aldude, which will be seen on Kanaldude public television.

What is true is that the Aldude Valley is undergoing major changes: although there has been a slight upturn in recent years, the population has been drastically reduced – in the year 2000 they were about 400 people and in the year 1975 they were about 500 – and the chances of joining are lower: the work of the farm is smaller in auzolan to carry on, let us not say about the eviction of the church, but at the end, But because society is in permanent revitalization, some points of contact are lost and others appear. Thus, for example, the playground built in the centre of Urepele, which has been designed in such a way that children and parents come together. They also have the rich cultural agenda proposed by Alfaroenea in Aldude. And finally, the housing project Bankako Tunio, an innovative project that comes to propose apartments in the heart of the town to elderly people who until then lived far away from the plaza. But they're still trying to find new ways to alleviate loneliness. For those in isolated houses, they have on the table, for example, the idea of a transport service that works as a taxi.

As for mobility, in general, the availability of services is the key to the conservation of life in the valley. If you have a baker handing out bread at home, the fishmonger has arrived once a week and a small supermarket is still open…, that is, they are quite well equipped compared to other valleys. As for services, nurses have been walking from home to home and until now have open mail, "A rope hack has open mail," says Pantxo, however, remembering that in 2019 he had to fight the service intestine. "It's a daily struggle, you have to be always vigilant as an elected, don't stop providing services and also you have to propose new projects," says Urepel Mayor Xole Aire. Although it is not the most productive, because for the habitability of the rural world it is essential to guarantee public services.

The AAI is supported by the institutions, mainly for the development of solutions. This collaboration is interesting for Aire: "We need that collaboration," he added. It goes two ways, or ideas are drawn from AIBA and the village houses are there to help in the execution, or the people's houses want to work on a topic and the ideas come out in the conversations that AIBA does."

In collaboration with the houses of the people

The reflection on empty housing initiated by AIBA in 2016 is probably the clearest proof of this. Of the 570 houses in the three municipalities, 103 are empty (and another hundred second homes or for tourism). The problem is that they are great houses and that the cost of rehabilitation is huge. "Young people want to stay in the village. Empty houses on the one hand, a generation of young people looking for housing on the other. We must reflect on this, following three objectives: to value local heritage, to reverse demographic evolution and to ensure housing supply,” said Maika Alfaro of AIBA. After the work carried out with the Council of Architects, Urbanism and the Environment at the departmental level, an architectural study of twelve houses was carried out in collaboration with the three municipalities, the Commonwealth of Iparralde and the Public Entity of the Earth EPFL, and currently several restoration projects are being carried out promoted by the houses of the town.

Everything is based on the Aldude 2030 reflection that took place in 2012, as its name indicates, and that it was an exercise to focus at the age of 20 and represent a living art. Among the more than 60 problems listed are the empty house or loneliness, among others. This reflection has been well remembered by Aire and has it as a “curve”. The ideas socially removed touched him: "Socially, we had a big beranta. Taboo themes emerged such as loneliness, precariousness, alcoholism, homosexuality, the weight of the other's gaze...". They're not light themes, but they come together, they outnumber taboos, and speaking in groups, they have a lighter weight.