Coordinates: 43°19′50″N 1°24′15″W / 43.3306°N 1.4042°W / 43.3306; -1.4042

Itxassou (Basque Itsasu) is a village in the traditional Basque province of Labourd, now a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France.

Nicolas Sarkozy (pronounced [ni.kɔ.la saʁ.kɔ.zi] ( listen), born Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa; 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as the 23rd President of the French Republic from 16 May 2007 until 15 May 2012.

Before his presidency, he was leader of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Under Jacques Chirac's presidency he served as Minister of the Interior in Jean-Pierre Raffarin's (UMP) first two governments (from May 2002 to March 2004), then was appointed Minister of Finances in Raffarin's last government (March 2004 to May 2005) and again Minister of the Interior in Dominique de Villepin's government (2005–2007).

Sarkozy was also president of the General council of the Hauts-de-Seine department from 2004 to 2007 and mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, one of the wealthiest communes of France from 1983 to 2002. He was Minister of the Budget in the government of Édouard Balladur (RPR, predecessor of the UMP) during François Mitterrand's last term.

In foreign affairs, he promised a strengthening of the entente cordiale with the United Kingdom and closer cooperation with the United States. During his term, he faced the late-2000s financial crisis (followed by the recession and the debt crisis caused by it) and the Arab Spring (especially in Tunisia, Libya, and Syria). He also married Italian-French singer-songwriter Carla Bruni on 2 February 2008 at the Élysée Palace in Paris.

Michel Portal (born 25 November 1935 in Bayonne, France) is a composer, saxophonist, and clarinetist.

Portal studied clarinet at the Conservatoire de Paris. He also studied conducting with Pierre Dervaux.

During August 1969, Portal played on several of the recordings in Stockhausen's cycle of intuitive works, Aus den sieben Tagen.

Portal might be noted most for scoring music to film, and has won the César Award for Best Music Written for a Film three times. His first win was for the music to The Return of Martin Guerre. He plays both jazz and classical music and is considered to be one of the architects of modern European jazz.^{[citation needed]}

In 1969, Portal co-founded the free improvisation group New Phonic Art with Vinko Globokar, Jean-Pierre Drouet and Carlos Roque Alsina.

Beñat Achiary (born in Saint-Palais, Pyrénées-Atlantiques) is a Basque vocal improviser who lives in southern France.

He has released three songs from Gherasim Luca's "heroes-limite" on his CD "Seven Circles for Peter", released by German label FMP in 2004.