Travel Eye on Biarritz (France)

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Overview :

Biarritz attracts a more discreet form of showbiz star than the Côte d'Azur. Its origin as a Basque fishing village is more or less forgotten since the whales stopped visiting the Bay of Biscay and since Napoleon III initiated the bathing trend that caught on here. Victor Hugo predicted in 1843 that the town would become a resort for Parisians, and it did. Hemingway wrote here, Stravinsky composed here, Sarah Bernhardt danced here.

These days, it's the surf capital of France and a major tourist magnet. The town has now one of the best water vigilanti on the coast (watch out for sea scooters) and both water and town remain clean. Nowadays, this chic French resort is littered only with surfers and their fans in high season - especially during the surf festival in July.

Basque culture remains, though, in the food, festivals and outlying villages. The architecture makes for an eclectic mix; gabled Basque houses, fanciful 19th-century mock chateaux and art deco villas. The Villa Eugenie, built by Napoleon on the seafront for his new Empress, burned down in 1903 and was rebuilt art deco style to become the grand Hotel du Palais. Further inland is the neo-Byzantine Chapelle Impérial . Other predominant features are the Casino (built around 1900) and the English-built golf course by the lighthouse.

Locality:

Situated in the very southwest of France in the Aquitaine region.

Entertainment/Facilities/Attractions/Things to do:

The beaches are the best feature. One of Biarritz's greatest pleasures is a stroll along the seafront, as the Plage Miramar runs on to the sweeping sandy Grande Plage. On one side the rock juts out to the lighthouse point. On the other, head along to the sheltered little Plage du Vieux-Port and the old fishermen's port with its minuscule cottages, and then on to the rocky headlands. The Rocher de la Vierge (Virgin's Rock), accessible via Gustave Eiffel iron bridge, is subtly floodlit. On the other side of the bridge you will reach the colossal breakers of the exposed Plage de la Côte des Basques, a surfing favourite in the evening.

There are rainy-day activities as well. Non-surfers can swim at the salt-water public pool in the casino complex above the Grande Plage. The Hotel Miramar houses a Thalasso therapy center renowned for restoring health at a price. The Musée de la Mer (esplanade du Rocher de la Vierge, is a family attraction with tanks of fish, sharks, and seals that provide visual entertainment at feeding times (10am and 5pm daily). The Musée du Chocolat tells of the Basque taming of the cocoa bean with rich tasting sessions. The small Musée Historique de Biarritz (rue Broquedis, closed Sun, Mon) presents local history in the former Anglican church, with photos of every British aristocrat that has visited Biarritz. For the last 50 years the famous Hippodrôme des Fleurs (ave du Lac Marion, has staged nightly trotting races in July and August.

The wild mountains of the Pyrenees stretch for 250 miles (402km) from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and have for many centuries formed a natural frontier: physical, climatic and linguistic, between France and Spain. Second only to the Alps among the great mountain ranges of Western Europe, the Pyrenees are much less frequented, and still offer an exciting combination of knife-edged summits, small glaciers, forested valleys, mountain tarns and little-trodden summer passes. Splendid trails lead to the magnificent cirques and lake-spangled basins of France's Pyrenees National Park. Over on the Spanish side paths lead through the spectacular canyons of the Ordesa-Monte Perdido National Park, one of Europe's oldest. In 1997, the United Nations inscribed a portion of the French and Spanish Pyrenees near the French village of Gavarnie and the Spanish village of Torla on its list of World Heritage Sites. Here, nature over the eons has carved three stupendous glacial cirques including the renowned Cirque de Gavarnie and a 3,000ft (914m) deep canyon called Ordesa - Spain's 'Grand Canyon.'