Tourist information -
Biarritz
A few minutes by rail or road from Bayonne, Biarritz
was, until forty years ago, the Monte Carlo of the Atlantic coast,
transformed by Napoleon III in the mid-nineteenth century into a
playground for monarchs, aristos and glitterati. With the rise of
the Côte d'Azur during the 1960s, however, the place went
into seemingly terminal decline. It is only during the last decade
that the city has been rediscovered by Parisian yuppies and the
international surfing fraternity, who together fuel a respectable
nightlife.
The focus of Biarritz is the Casino Municipal, just behind the
Grande Plage, now restored to its 1930s grandeur. Inland, the town
forms a surprisingly amorphous and workaday sprawl, with the sole
point of interest the Musée d'Art Oriental, 1 rue Guy-Petit
(Tues 10.30am-7pm, Wed-Fri 10.30am-1pm & 2.30-7/8pm, Sat 10.30am-1pm
& 2.30-10/11pm, Sun 2.30-7/8pm; 45F/?6.85), exhibiting the collection
of Indian and Tibetan art specialist Michel Postel.
Between here and the Plage du Port-Vieux are the only streets and
squares conducive to relaxed strolling. At the far west end of place
Clemenceau , one of several central squares, you can nibble a cake
or sip a lemon tea at Miremont's Salon de Thé - a frightfully
superior place epitomizing old-money Biarritz. To the west, the
faded old-time hotels ringing the place Attalaye, high above the
port, are worth a glance for their elegant facades, as is the characterful
if touristy rue du Port-Vieux just below, leading down to its namesake
beach.
The shore, however, is undeniably beautiful. White breakers crash
on sandy strands, where beautiful people bronze their limbs cheek
by jowl with suburban families and surf bums, against a backdrop
of casinos and ocean-liner hotels, ornate churches, Gothic follies
and modern apartment blocks. The beaches - served by STAB buses
#4 and #9 from Biarritz centre - extend northwards from Plage de
la Milady through Plage Marbella, Côte des Basques, Plage
du Port-Vieux, Grande Plage and Plage Miramar to the Pointe St-Martin.
Most of the action takes place between the Plage du Port-Vieux and
the Plage Miramar, overlooked by the huge Hôtel du Palais
(formerly the Villa Eugénie), built by Napoléon III
in the mid-nineteenth century for his wife, whom he met and courted
in Biarritz.
Just beside the Plage du Port-Vieux , the most sheltered and intimate
of the beaches, a rocky promontory sticks out into the sea, ending
in the Rocher de la Vierge , an offshore rock topped by a white
statue of the Virgin, and linked to the mainland by an Eiffel-built
iron catwalk. Around it are scattered other rocky islets where the
swell heaves and combs. On the bluff above the Virgin stands the
Musée de la Mer (daily: July & Aug 9.30am-midnight; rest
of year 9.30am-12.30pm & 2-6pm; 45F/?6.85), which contains interesting
displays on the fishing industry and the region's birds, and an
aquarium of North Atlantic fish.
Just below is the picturesque harbour of the Port des Pêcheurs
, most easily approached by a switchback pedestrian lane. The fishermen
have now gone, replaced by pleasure boats, but there's a scuba outfitter
here and a clutch of pricey seafood restaurants. To the northeast
lies the Grande Plage , an immaculate sweep of sand originally dubbed
the "Plage des Fous" after the 1850s practice of taking
mental patients to bathe here as a primitive form of thalassotherapy.
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