The Rocher de la Vierge — the Rock of the Virgin — is a dramatic basalt outcrop rising from the Atlantic surf about 200 metres off the southern seafront, connected to the mainland by a narrow iron walkway. A white statue of the Virgin Mary sits on the summit, placed there in 1865 when Napoleon III ordered the construction of a breakwater to create a harbour here; the harbour never worked out (the Atlantic was too rough), but the statue remained.
The views from the rock are the best in Biarritz: the full sweep of the Grande Plage to the north, the Basque coast curving south towards Spain, and the open Atlantic to the west. On stormy days, waves crash over the walkway and spray the visitors clustered on the rock. Sunset is the obvious time to come, when the light turns the waves gold.