Hossegor — officially Soorts-Hossegor — is the surf capital of France and, for a few weeks each autumn, of Europe. What makes it that is the Gouf de Capbreton, an underwater canyon that runs almost to the shore and delivers Atlantic swell to the beach with very little warning. La Gravière, the wave that results, is a short, thick, extremely heavy barrel that breaks in shallow water over sand, and it is not a beginner's wave in any sense.
The town itself is calmer than its reputation. It grew up in the 1920s around a saltwater lake left behind when the Boudigau channel was cut, and the villas around the lake are a distinctive Basque-Landais hybrid: half-timbered gables, red shutters, deep eaves, set among maritime pines. The lake side is where families go; the beach side is where the surf industry lives, and most of the European surf brands have offices within a few kilometres.
Out of season it empties, which is when the pine forest and the twenty-odd kilometres of cycle path through it come into their own. Capbreton is walking distance south across the channel, and Seignosse is the next beach north.