Saturday
Morning
Biarritz is the French Basque coast at its most stylish. It has hosted tiara traditions of well-bred hedonism since Empress Eugénie had Napoleon III build her a headland palace here in the 1850s. Europe’s noble and rich followed. Then came the artists and movie stars, Gary Cooper through Gwyneth Paltrow.
Whoever’s in town, though, the place remains Basque — concerned less with high-rolling, more with family, fiesta and the flashing of balls, rugby or pelota. These people have ceded nothing to anyone, certainly not to celebrity. The bling-free glam is, thus, muted and rooted — and, it seems, more popular than ever. A new British Airways service from Heathrow launches today, and Flybe will be starting flights from Southampton on July 3. We’d skip August (packed). At all other times, it’s splendid.
Your first morning move will be to the Les Halles covered market. This is where Basques go to reassure themselves that, after 2,000 years of fishing and farming, supplies are holding up. It’s a red-blooded cacophony of cheeses, fish and Bayonne hams hanging like mandolins. Food lust overpowers. Repair to the Amuse-Gueule stand for cake and coffee (Biarritz’s cheapest; from 80p) or a glass of Irouléguy wine.
Then stroll. This is the most intense district in town, pullulating with bars, restaurants, food aromas, old-fashioned commerce and (a first for me) an open-air violin repairer. Now it’s time for pelota, the cracking-a-ball-against-a-wall sport that Basques gave the world, in 23 varieties. Plaza Berri is the oldest indoor pelota court in France. Enter the attached bistro. The dish of the day with pud will cost you a tenner.
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Afternoon
Watch a game of pelota from the three levels of wooden seating (tickets from £4.50pp; cesta-punta.com). Or, if you’ve booked ahead (00 33 5 47 64 53 41), have a thrash yourself. The young bistro managers, Jeremy Bousquet and Jon Curveur — a pelota pro — will indicate how.
A choice: should you be interested in oriental art, the nearby Musée Asiatica beckons. It’s a belting collection of treasures (£7.75; museeasiatica.com). Otherwise, amble to cliffs overlooking the Côte des Basques, then along the seaside walk. A footbridge leads to one of many rocky outcrops; the one distinguished by a statue of the Virgin is the Rocher de la Vierge. She looks serene, but vulnerable when the sea leaps at her like a pack of hounds.
Continue the walk, by way of feathery tamarisk trees, before turning inland to Place Clémenceau. At the square’s edge, Miremont is the salon de thé where Edward VII bought his pastries (miremont-biarritz.fr).
Evening
If flush, take a 15-minute cab ride to L’Atelier de Gaztelur, outside the village of Arcangues, one of the best tables in Biarritz. Amid countryside and gardens, the 15th-century manor house offers remarkable modern cooking (menus from £52; gaztelur.com).
Back in the town centre, El Callejon has been serving Basque and Spanish specialities con gusto for ages (menus from £16; elcallejon-biarritz.com). Later, Le Caveau, a short stumble away, will keep most ages dancing, drinking and diverted through to dawn (caveau-biarritz.com).
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Sunday
Morning
Another choice. Golfers should make for Le Phare, a three-iron from the centre. It’s the second oldest course on the Continent, testimony to British influence in Biarritz when it mattered. Thus, it has the proper atmosphere of privilege and of fair play staunchly enforced. The course was also HQ to Arnaud Massy — the only Frenchman ever to win the Open, in 1907. He had his newborn daughter christened Margot Hoylake to mark the occasion. She must have thanked him ever after (green fees from £42, club hire £17; golfbiarritz.com).
Others might pass the morning walking up to the Phare de Biarritz lighthouse. Join the coastal path wherever you happen to be. Pause at the lighthouse cabin for good open-air coffee and an eyeful of seascape, then return down to the Grande Plage. This was Edward VII’s favourite stroll. He would have come across local medics who, at the turn of the 20th century, dipped lunatics in the Atlantic “to ease their madness”.
Everyone meets for lunch on the Côte des Basques, at Le Surfing. The food’s much better than the surfing groove might suggest (mains from £9; lesurfing.fr).
Afternoon
Surfers will be set up for a stint on the said Côte des Basques. It was here that Euro surfing started, in 1956. The Hollywood screenwriter Peter Viertel (Mr Deborah Kerr) — in town for the filming of The Sun Also Rises — took a plank out to sea, the locals were intrigued, and that was that. Should you favour lessons, or simple improvement, the Jo Moraiz (jomoraiz.com) and Hastea (hastea.com) surf schools have been around long enough to know what they’re doing. You can hire a board and wetsuit from either for £9 an hour. The less active might simply stretch out on towels, returning now and then to Le Surfing or to the next-door, and equally cool, Côte 57 for sustenance.
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Evening
Aperitifs at the Hôtel du Palais. The palace Napoleon III built for Eugénie burnt down in 1903. Rebuilt in the same E-shape, but on an even grander scale, it remains an old-money hotel of chandeliers, columns, gold leaf and crowned heads. To enter is to be fleetingly ennobled, and a glass of wine costs but £7. Dine later, back in the Halles district, at the bistro-chic Café du Commerce (mains from £13; cafeducommerce-biarritz.fr). Then amble along the coast again with a loved one. Intimacy before the infinity of the night ocean also lasts for ever.
Where to stay
High above the ocean on the lighthouse headland, Le Regina rises white and grand from the town’s most monumental avenue. A recent refurb has left the hotel’s superb central atrium an angel-devil mix of white and debauched red. The bedrooms are splendidly art deco, the restaurant, bar and spa are first-class (doubles from £110, then steeply up; hotelregina-biarritz.com). Or try the central, three-star Hôtel Alcyon (doubles from £62; hotel-alcyon-biarritz.com).
Getting there
As well as the new BA and Flybe flights, Biarritz is served by easyJet from Gatwick (from June 18), Flybe from Birmingham (May 22) and Ryanair from Stansted.