The modern indy surfing culture has combined with arts and culture to create a surfing scene in Biarritz which has helped make the town one of the ‘coolest’ places in France.

Some have dubbed it the ‘French California’ but in truth Biarritz has its own unique feel as a surfing and beach resort.

The story of Biarritz surfing, and indeed of surfing in Europe as a whole, began with author and screenwriter Peter Viertel. Viertel was born in Germany but grew up in California where he took up the booming sport of surfing. In 1956 and 1957, during the filming of the movie The Sun Also Rises, on which he was the writer, Viertel spent much of his time on the Côte des Basques beach with the precious object he’d had sent over from America—his surfboard. With him was the film’s producer, Richard Zanuck, and the two rode the waves together, causing quite a stir among the locals.

The incomparable Clive James wrote of this period: ‘Some of the village elders said it was against the laws of both God and gravity. But the younger men couldn’t wait to join in.’ Biarritz surfing was born. Viertel met a young Frenchman called Joël de Rosnay, who later became a well-known writer and scientist in France, whose family used to holiday on the coast and who immediately became a fan. De Rosnay went on to become one of the pioneers of French surfing, became French champion in 1961 and had the honour – and doubtless great pleasure – of teaching the actress Catherine Deneuve to surf on the Chambre d’Amour beach at nearby Anglet in 1962.

By 1958 a local man, Jacky Rott, had begun making France’s first surfboards – known as the ‘Neptune’ – and the following year the first surfing club in the Biarritz was formed. In 1960 the first competitions took place on the town’s beaches. In the late 1960s and early 1970s Biarritz surfing followed the hippy counter-culture trend seen in California, before surfing became more of a mass sport in the 1980s.

The best places to surf

Though Biarritz has six beaches in all, not all of them are suitable for surfing or bodysurfing. The best ones are:

Le Grande Plage

Biarritz’s iconic beach, probably the best-known for surfing. It’s a pretty reliable surfing beach all year round, exposed as it is to the Atlantic Ocean. The beach break on Grande Plage offers both left and right-hand waves. Probably the biggest hazard at the beach are people – it can get very crowded.

Plage Côte des Basques

This may not be the most photographed Biarritz surfing beach but this is where European surfing began and is arguably the best Biarritz beach for surfing. It’s exposed to the ocean and offers fairly reliable surf all year. The Côte des Basques beach is probably best for surfing at low water. Not only are the rocks close at high water, but the beach also tends to be crowded then. Early autumn when the sun-worshipping beach tourists have gone is a good time to surf here.

Plage Marbella

This beach runs on from the Côte des Basques beach and is probably slightly overlooked as a Biarritz surfing destination. It generally provides similar conditions to Côte des Basques but offers better conditions when the tides are high. Access is also not as easy as other local beaches which means this beach tends not to attract such great numbers as elsewhere. It’s certainly worth a try. Like the Côte des Basques, the main hazard at Marbella is rocks.

Photo 1 by Guillén Pérez / CC BY 2.0 image cropped; Photo 2 by Pierre (Rennes) / CC BY 2.0 image cropped