Biarritz: Where Adrenaline Meets Belle Époque

Magnificent Belle Époque villas and golden sandy beaches, elegant strollers alongside adventurous surfers. A sleepy fishing village until 1854, Biarritz was transformed by Napoleon III into an elegant summer retreat for high society – and has remained so to this day.

When you cross the stone bridge at Rocher du Basta by the old fishing harbour for the first time, you feel torn in two. Not just literally, because the wild Atlantic wind is tugging and pulling at you – but also figuratively, because you don’t know where to look first: at the mighty waves crashing against the cliffs below? The impressive stone structure towering majestically over the sea? Or perhaps the magnificent buildings on the beach: the opulent Belle Époque villas, the linear Art Deco buildings, the Basque half-timbered houses?