Biarritz enjoys a superb setting on the Atlantic Coast just a little west of Bayonne with its stunning Grand Plage and the charming old Port des Pêcheurs.

In fact Biarritz used to be where the folks from from Bayonne came in their time off - on horseback and foot along the banks of the River Adour. During the 19th Century all this changed when Spanish Aristocrats, including the family of the future Princess Eugénie, discovered the place.

The Grand Plage

Later her husband Napoleon III came too and they had a large house built at the Northern end of the Grand Plage, which was called Villa Eugénie, and during the Second Empire Biarritz became an extremely fashionable resort. The Villa is now an up-market hotel (See the red building, top right in the image above)

Surfing