Biarritz
Eugénie persuaded Napoleon III to build a villa here in 1854, and the imperial fashion turned a whaling village into a resort of palaces and casinos; a Californian screenwriter brought the first surfboard in 1956 and gave it a second life. The Atlantic is best seen from the Rocher de la Vierge, then eat Basque in Les Halles, where the region asserts itself over the empire.
Why go
An empress's resort turned surf capital — two identities a century apart on the same beach. Atlantic swell — the first surfboard arrived in 1956 and Europe's surf culture started here. Basque country — the language, the food and the pelota are not French and do not pretend to be. Belle Époque bones — a casino, a lighthouse, and villas built for a nineteenth-century court.
The character
Biarritz was a whaling village until Eugénie de Montijo, born in Granada and married to Napoleon III, persuaded her husband to build a summer palace here in 1854. The imperial fashion did the rest: Victoria came, Edward VII came repeatedly, the Russian aristocracy followed, and by 1900 the town had a casino, grand hotels and a season. The Villa Eugénie is now the Hôtel du Palais, still the town's landmark.
The second identity arrived by accident. In 1956 the American screenwriter Peter Viertel, in Biarritz for the filming of The Sun Also Rises, had a surfboard shipped from California; local swimmers watched, copied and built their own, and the Côte des Basques became the birthplace of European surfing. Today the two Biarritz coexist: a formal spa resort with a thalassotherapy tradition and a Basque surf town where the water is cold, the swell is serious and the beach is full at seven in the morning. Underneath both is the Basque country itself, which is the third and oldest layer.
Places of character
Côte des Basques — the beach where European surfing began; the longboarders are there at dawn. Rocher de la Vierge — a rock joined to the shore by an iron footbridge attributed to Eiffel's workshop. Les Halles — the covered market, Basque produce, and the bars around it that fill at midday. Musée de la Mer — a 1933 Art Deco aquarium on the headland, with seals and the Bay of Biscay explained. Cité de l'Océan — a modern museum of the sea by Steven Holl, more interesting than it sounds. Bayonne and Saint-Jean-de-Luz — the Basque towns twenty minutes either side, for chocolate and a harbour.
The way to do it
Take a surf lesson even if you never do it again — the Côte des Basques is where it started and the schools are good. Eat at Les Halles and the bars around it rather than on the seafront. Cross into Spain for a day; San Sebastián is forty minutes. And walk the coast path south toward Bidart at the end of the day.
One perfect day
Down to the Côte des Basques at seven with the longboarders and the mist off the water. Coffee, then Les Halles for the market and a plate of Bayonne ham standing at a counter. Late morning around the Rocher de la Vierge and along the cliff path to the lighthouse. Lunch of Basque fish stew. Afternoon in the water with a board, badly. Thalassotherapy or a nap. Aperitif with a glass of Txakoli, dinner in a Basque restaurant with cider poured from height, and a last walk past the lit Hôtel du Palais where an empress once summered.
Grand hotels
Hôtel du Palais — Eugénie's 1855 villa, converted to a hotel in 1893 and rebuilt after a fire in 1903. Hôtel de Silhouette — a seventeenth-century Basque manor in the town, quieter and family-run.
When to go
Best expression: September — warm water, the best swell of the year and the summer crowd gone. Consider: June, before the season, with long light and empty beaches. Avoid if possible: August, when the town triples and the Côte des Basques is shoulder to shoulder.
The frame
Ideal stay 3 nights · Minimum 2 nights · Best arrival TGV from Paris, four hours · Airport BIQ, 5 km · Walkability excellent, with cliff steps · Best without a car yes