Biarritz

We had quite the utopian existence for our days in Biarritz on the Basque Coast: sleep in, breakfast, morning swim, lunch, afternoon surf, afternoon Basque nibbles, dinner, sleep, repeat. Biarritz has been popular with tourists since European royalty began visiting hundreds of years ago. These days it’s a major surfing destination, its long sandy beaches and mellow breaks a magnet for tourists wanting to learn to surf in the beautiful waters of the Atlantic. We had some magnificent weather during our stay, with temperatures in the afternoon hovering around 22°C/72°F, beautiful blue skies and the water a very comfortable 19°C/66°F. Our apartment was a short stroll from the main surfing beach at Plage de la Côte des Basques and easy walk from the center of town around Port Vieux. While development of the area has allowed some ghastly apartment buildings to pop up along the coast here and there, the town’s character was very much one of a laid-back surfing enclave, with wetsuits hanging from balconies along the streets and surfboards propped up against villas. Apart from having to play dog turd hopscotch on the sidewalks more than any other place we’d visited in Europe, Biarritz was a stunning spot to spend a few days.

The Basque Coast sees some sizable tides, so large that the main surfing beach at Plage de la Côte des Basques completely disappeared each day at high tide. Fortunately the low coincided with the warmest part of the day in the afternoons. The beach break in front of the plethora of surfing schools and surfboard rental outfits along the foreshore ofPlage de la Côte des Basques was an ideal spot for all of us to ride a few waves each day. On the train from Arcachon I stumbled across Marty’s Surf Delivery and organized some wetsuits for Lisa and the kids, can’t go wrong with 5€ a day for a kids wetsuit delivered free to your door! (Max was so jazzed with his wetsuit that he actually ate dinner whilst wearing it on the first night.) Marty himself was an absolute legend, the quintessential surf character living the dream. We also snagged some surfboards and a bodyboard at the rental outfitters alongPlage de la Côte des Basques, the kids (and parents) had an absolute ball each afternoon in the waves. Max was so hooked after he got the hang of his 6’6″ soft top that we almost had to drag him out of the waves each day to head back up to the apartment. “Just one more, that last one wasn’t my best one!” would come back the shriek above the din of the surf each time we’d try to get him back to the beach. Lisa and I also had a blast on the boards, although we were certainly feeling old the morning after our first surf, with tender ribcages and knees from the fiberglass and achy shoulders from paddling. So much fun, good times…

Each morning while we waited for the tide to recede we’d find ourselves drawn to the stunning cove of Plage du Port Vieux nestled directly below the main drag in old town. It reminded me a lot of the city beaches in Sydney, especially Tamarama, with rocky walls on each side and deep blue of the ocean stretching towards the horizon. At high tide there was some excellent snorkeling a short swim from the sand with an incredible amount of sea life under the surface coming in to feed off the algae- and weed-covered rocks. At low tide, the tide pools provided an endless number of spots for the kids to explore and some stunning pools in which to swim. It was great to see all the local septuagenarians and octogenarians come out of the woodwork each morning for their daily dip, such a relaxed beach lifestyle. One morning I took Max snorkeling – him with a wetsuit and me without – the air temperature was 9°C/48°F but the water at 19°C/66°F felt so pleasant in the sun, I could have stayed swimming for ages had Wild Man’s lips not started turning blue!

We ended up eating in a few times during our stay, mainly because everyone (parents included) was so smoked after all day at the beach that none of us could summon the energy to venture out for dinner! The one exception was a seafood bar I stumbled across in Port Vieux that served similar fare to Le Pitt in Arcachon: delectable local oysters, whelk and prawns. In addition, La Cabane à Huîtres also served up some exquisite Basque takes on seafood and other local fare cooked on the la plancha: the local padron peppers, garlic mussels and grilled calamari were all incredibly tasty. I’m really going to miss the seafood of the Basque Coast! La Cabane à Huîtres is definitely worth a visit if ever in Biarritz.