4 days ago
Surf, style, sun: the ultra chic French town just a short flight away
To me, Biarritz has always represented a certain faded French glamour. A favourite with the rich and famous since Napoleon first took to the waters in 1808, it's the sort of place an elderly Parisian might escape to with her poodle. The city has welcomed Coco Chanel, Ernest Hemingway and Charlie Chaplin, while Victor Hugo wrote he had never visited anywhere 'more pleasant and perfect'.
Now you too can join the list of visitors, thanks to a twice weekly flight from Edinburgh to the tiny airport on the outskirts of the town.
When it comes to places to stay, there is only really one address. Built by Napoleon III as a summer house for his wife, Empress Eugénie, Hôtel du Palais has been lavishly rebuilt and remodelled as one of Europe's grandest hotels.
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Today it stands overlooking Biarritz's Grand Place like a beautiful clifftop wedding cake, its rooftop Tricolore fluttering on breezes blown in by the Atlantic. If you want to walk corridors frequented by Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, this is the place for you.
The hotel is a short walk along the promenade from Biarritz itself. Passing the ice cream sellers you end up in the narrow cobbled streets of the old town where chic restaurants and designer shops sit alongside turreted villas and Basque style townhouses.
We had dinner in Bouillon Hortense, a popular bistro just back from the beach, French classics with a real sense of generosity (our rum baba was served with a bottle of rum for topping up).
Surfing is a big part of Biarritz's identity — people here are fluent in 'dude'. Seventy years ago an American screenwriter arrived to make a movie and looked out to sea. He immediately had his board shipped over from Los Angeles — and European surfing was born. This stretch of coast brims with cool cafés, bars and surfshops catering for the armies of wave-seekers who flock here from Australia and California.
If barrels, backwash and reef breaks aren't your thing, there are good swimming spots too, patrolled by lifeguards. Plage du Port Vieux right in the centre of town is particularly serene and has a great bar called Eden Rock for sunset drinks.
Those sunsets are not guaranteed, however: Atlantic coastal weather is notoriously fickle. Although cloudy weather provides a good excuse to walk the coastal path, as we did, from the lighthouse to the old fishing port, lined with great fish restaurants. From here we visited the Halles des Biarritz food market, bursting with oysters, prawns, cheese, patisserie and lucky locals doing their daily shopping.
This is a tourist town that still manages to feel utterly authentic. In a tiny store called Art of Soule the owner explained, with great passion, his mission to revive traditional espadrille making while supporting local surfwear brands. He also recommended Bistrot Du Haou on Rue Gambetta where we found an excellent two-course lunch for €20 and an exuberant crowd enjoying bottles of red and delicious local steaks.
Next day, we rented electric bikes and set off south on the corniche coastal path. It was an easy cycle to the splendidly named Plage de la Milady and then on to Guéthary with its great choice of village restaurants and splendid views along the rocky coast. It's also a stop on the rail line if you don't fancy the cycle back.
Bikes returned, rest earned, we hit the stunning Hôtel du Palais pool with its clifftop views of the waves. Reading the latest Robert Harris novel, I nearly fell off my sunlounger.
In the book, the author recounts what happened when Herbert Asquith won the 1910 General Election. Since Edward VII was once again at his favourite holiday spot in France, the new prime minister had to catch the boat train so he could travel to kiss the hand of the monarch. That took place in a salon, you guessed it, at the Hôtel du Palais. Good enough for all the big names of the past hundred years — and definitely good enough for us.
Stephen Jardine was a guest of Hôtel du Palais (B&B doubles from £388, Fly to Biarritz from Paris from about £90 return (
