Côte des Basques

The Côte des Basques is the original Biarritz surf beach, a 700-metre stretch of sand directly below dramatic sandstone cliffs south of the old town. The beach faces west into the full Atlantic and consistently produces the long, rolling lefts and rights that put Biarritz on the surf map. It is where most people learn to surf in Biarritz, with the most consistent conditions and the largest concentration of surf schools.

At low tide, the beach is wide and sandy; at high tide it narrows dramatically and the waves break closer to the cliff base. The cliffs above are honeycombed with car parks and a broad promenade, from which you can watch the surf action below. The beach faces west, so it is the place in Biarritz to watch the sun set directly into the ocean. On good summer evenings the cliffs fill up with spectators.

things to do sight
A story
This is where European surfing began. In 1956, American screenwriter Peter Viertel was in Biarritz working on a film adaptation of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises and brought the first surfboard to France. He paddled out into the waves here, local fishermen watched in bewilderment, and within a few years French teenagers were making boards of their own and riding the same break.