I've reflected on the subcomments I've received. Evidently there's a consensus of sorts that the whole northern part of Spain is "northeastern Spain", even if the northern part is on the Atlantic and the southern part is on the Med.
That's fine - it seems to be about the semantics of "northeast", which I don't care to take a stand on. So I yield.
I'm looking at a map! The eastern border of Spain is the pyrenees, and Catalonia lies at the south end of the pyrenees; it as far south as you can go, down the eastern border. North-east Spain lies on the Bay of Biscay; South-east Spain lies on the Mediteranean.
The north-east portion of Spain is the Basque country. That does lie on the Bay of Biscay.
I agree that Catlunya is north of e.g. Madrid, or Grenada, or whatever. But Catalunya is certainly the southernmost part of eastern Spain. Saying it is "the northeast of Spain" is just wrong. Hell, look at the wikipedia link that sibling posted: it's as clear as daylight. You can't go further east without arriving in France; but you can leave Catalunya through it's northern border, without leaving Spain.
Catalunya is therefore not "the northeast of Spain".
Seems like like you don't know your cardinal directions or are trolling. I guess this was obvious from the start, but I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt.
OK; so in which corner of Spain is the Basque country located?
I've heard it said before that Catalunya is north-east Spain, so I was surprised when I learned that it is south of the Basque Country, and situated on the mediterranean.
I can see how someone from Madrid might consider both the Basque Country and Catalunya to be "north-east". But I think it's misleading to describe Catalunya as the "north-east" corner, when there are three other regions further north than Catalunya on the eastern border, and none further south.
> The simplest test is to cut a country into quadrants with lines running and north-south and east west.
Sure, OK, maybe that way of thinking is why I've had so much kickback. If you draw a rectangle around Spain on a map and divide the rectangle into quadrants, then Pays Basque and Catalunya both fall squarely in the northeast quadrant.
But by that reasoning, the entire eastern part of Spain is the "northeast". Spain is not rectangular.
Gosh, I've been to both Catalunya and Pays Basque. I've lived in France. Catalunya is on Spain's south coast. North of Catalunya is Pays Basque, which also adjoins the pyrenees to the east. The north-east portion of Spain is the Pays Basque, not Catalunya.
You can certainly get further south than Catalunya; but only by going west or getting on a boat. Catalunya is the southern portion of eastern Spain; it is therefore south-east, not north-east.
I've lived in France; but I haven't lived everywhere in France. And I'm certainly not French.
I'll assume goodwill, although you've thrown me a trick question; so my answer is that France doesn't have a northeast "corner". Looking at that wikipedia map, I'd say they're both in the northeast, but neither is in the corner (Belgium is).
