--- In BoundaryPoint@y..., michael donner <orc@o...> wrote:
(...) heleta irissari lekorne makea & orzaize turns out like all
french multimunicipal points to be nested in a daunting succession of
subdivisional entities starting with the administrative region of
aquitaine on the subnational or secondary level & continuing thru the
department of pyrenees atlantiques on the tertiary level & the
province of pays basque on the quaternary level if i got it right &
also possibly even the subprovincial or quintenary entity of basse
navarre so that the municipalities constituting this quintipoint are
technically all the way down to sextenary entities & thus the basque
quintipoint tho remarkable is evidently no match for glhemaokpa the
tertiary quintipoint of florida that is still global maxipoint
apparent (...)

Not quite. The Basque subdivisions are not official at all in the
North Basque Country (although very much alive among the population).
In France, subdivisions *generally* work as follows:
1. Country
2. Region
3. Departement
4. Arrondissement
5. Canton
6. Municipality
There are exceptions. The most notable exception is that cantons are
dependent on the number of inhabitants. So a canton can contain
several municipalities, consist of only one municipality, or one
municipality contains several cantons!
For the arrondissements, this exception exists in Paris, Marseilles,
and Lyon. These cities are divided into arrondissements. It is just
strange that Paris is a departement on it's own, but the other two
are not. Equally strange is it that at least in Paris (I don't know
about the other two), an arrondissement is not divided into cantons,
but quarters. Obviously, no municipalities here (the municipality and
the departement are one and the same here).

The Basque division is into seven provinces. Four of them are in
Spain and are official Spanish provinces too. The other three (in the
French republic) don't have any official status whatsoever. Even the
North Basque Country has no status (yet?) in France. Most of it is
the arrondissement Baiona/Bayonne, but part of it belongs to the
arrondissement Oloron-Sainte-Marie.

And to make it more complicated still: Some Basques consider Navarre
(also a Spanish province and region) and Lower Navarre (in France) as
one single province. Something it was in 1512 for the last time (if I
remember correctly). It then used to be called the "Merindad"
(subdivision of a province) of "Over the Passes", a designation for
the part of Navarre that was on the other side of the Pyrenees. It is
interesting that in the early 16th century, Upper Navarre was annexed
by the Spanish kingdom, but not Lower Navarre. It was because of this
the crown of Navarre was attached to this northern part of the former
kingdom. When this part became part of France, the kings of France
got the title "King of Navarre", too. This is why the kings of France
had the title "King of France and Navarre". Funny if you consider the
small area of Lower Navarre, compared to the rest of France. The
old "parliament of Navarre" was based in Pau, nowadays capital of the
departement of the Atlantic Pyrenees, but not in the Basque country,
let alone in Navarre (this area is called is Bearn).

Peter S.