Hosting festayres for the Fêtes de Bayonne with peace of mind

In late July, Bayonne turns white and red, and the houses fill up at the same pace as the streets. For many locals, the Fêtes start with exactly that: cousins from the Sud-Ouest, old university friends, family from Pau or Bordeaux turning up for five days of bandas, peñas and far-too-short nights. We love hosting. But between makeshift beds, bags piling up in the hallway and the sofa promoted to a spare mattress, the party at home can quickly turn into a headache. What if you could reclaim a proper guest room, just for the event, simply by tucking away whatever is in the way?

When the flat turns into a dormitory

Between the Arènes and Petit Bayonne, homes are not made of rubber. To fit four, six, sometimes eight guests, you push the furniture around, you stack things up, you improvise. Here are a few things that genuinely get in the way when you host festayres and still want a liveable home:

• The furniture in the spare room. A desk, an exercise bike, shelves, an old armchair: to turn a corner into a bedroom, you usually have to clear everything out. Shoving it into the hallway just moves the clutter somewhere else.
• The fragile and the precious. With people coming and going at night and getting back from the Arènes a little worse for wear, the family china and the vase you inherited from your grandmother are safer out of the way than balanced on the edge of a shelf.
• Seasonal bulky items. The beach gear brought back from Anglet, the boxes from your last trip, the archive carton forgotten in the living room: all of it eats into the space your guests actually need.
• Whatever you'd rather keep apart. Files, keepsakes, small valuables: not ideal left in the middle of a home running at full tilt for five days straight.

A storage unit, your spare room away from home

The idea fits in one sentence: you rent a secure storage unit for the duration of the Fêtes, you drop off whatever is in the way, and you reclaim the space at home to welcome everyone. It's an extra room outside your house, that you fill a few days before and empty once the last peña has been put away.

• A genuine room freed up. By clearing out a study or a child's bedroom, you give your guests a proper place to sleep, not a mattress wedged between two boxes.
• Your belongings dry and protected. The storage unit is a private space, clean, dry and ventilated, inside a building with video surveillance and access control. For as long as the house is full, your fragile items are safe.
• You stay in control of the calendar. The solution is flexible and you book online, with no card details asked upfront. You rent for the period that suits you, not for six months.
• It's right next door. With a centre in the heart of Bayonne and outside "drive-up" access at the Arènes, you load the car at the foot of the unit and it only takes a few minutes, without crossing a town closed off by the festivities.

Léa, in her one-bedroom near the Arènes

Léa lives a stone's throw from the Arènes. Every summer, her two brothers turn up with their girlfriends for the Fêtes: four extra people in 45 m². Last year she rented a small storage unit for the ten days or so around the event. She slipped in her desk, her bike and two boxes of fragile decorations. Her workspace became a perfectly decent guest room, and she put everyone up without turning her living room into a battlefield. By early August, everything was back home, no fuss at all.

Getting organised, step by step

Hosting during the Fêtes takes a little planning ahead. Here's how to do it without the stress:

• Sort one to two weeks ahead. Pick the room to free up and what needs to come out of it, without forgetting the fragile items to protect while the house lives day and night.
• Gauge the volume before you book. A small unit of 1 to 3 m² is often enough for spare furniture and a few boxes. Two minutes to estimate your volume and you'll pick the right size first time.
• Pack the fragile items for the trip. Bubble wrap on the china and sentimental pieces, boxes closed and labelled: even for a few days, you may as well move and stack things cleanly.
• Load up just before the guests arrive. Use a quiet slot, before the town centre closes to traffic, to make the round trip in peace.
• Keep the handy stuff at the front. At the back, what you won't touch; at the front, the few things you might want to grab mid-week during the Fêtes.
• Empty the unit once calm returns. Once your festayres have left and the red and white are packed away, you collect your belongings and end the rental. That's it.

Further reading

• Our Bayonne Les Arènes centre, right in the heart of town with outside drive-up access to load up in minutes.
• Our Bayonne Les Pontots centre, easy to reach via the main roads for larger volumes.
• See all our storage centres across the Basque Country and the Sud Landes.

• Hosting festayres shouldn't condemn you to living in a mess.
• A storage unit rented for the Fêtes frees up a real guest room at home.
• Spare furniture, fragile pieces and bulky items all find their place in a secure private space.
• A clean, dry and ventilated space, under video surveillance and access control.
• Flexible rental and online booking, with no card details asked upfront.
• Centres in the heart of Bayonne, just a few minutes from home.

Expecting a crowd for the Fêtes de Bayonne? Book your storage unit online right now and welcome your festayres with peace of mind. Our local team is here to help you aim for the right size.