Sign in with Facebook
The seaside town of Biarritz
Located on the edge of Basque country where the Pyrenees step into the Bay of Biscay, Biarritz became fashionable when the newly married Napoleon III and his empress, Eugenie, arrived in 1855 and built the aristocratic pink-colored Villa "Eugenie" as a summer residence. Napoleon's villa now is the beautifully refurbished Hotel du Palais, the focal and social point of this Atlantic-coast resrot.
When you stand at the scenic point by the lighthouse, you can see a bridge that connects the land and some rocks in the ocean. This bridge was built by Gustav Eiffel, the builder of the Eiffel Tower. The best waves in Europe were discovered here late in the 1950s. Deborah Kerr visited Biarritz with her boyfriend who surfed and made Biarritz the unofficial surfing and windsurfing capital of the continent.
Best times to visit Biarritz would be May through late October. We enjoyed walking on the beach which is just a step down from the city's sidewalks. The waves are thunderously loud and crash and roar around the outcropping rocks. Walking on the beach at The Bay of Biscay was one of the things on my "must do before I die" list.
