150 years ago, this fashionable resort was not much different from other seaside settlements. In the Middle Ages, there was a village here, whose inhabitants were engaged in whaling. Starting from the XVIII century, people began to come here on the recommendation of doctors, who considered the water and air of these places to be curative.
Victor Hugo, who visited the town in 1843, made it famous. After Emperor Napoleon IIІІІ and his wife Eugenia came here, the resort was considered royal. The emperor and empress were enchanted by the place and built a residence here, called “Villa Eugenia”. (Now it is the most luxurious hotel of the whole Atlantic coast under the name of Hotel du Palais). Following the French court Biaritz was favored by the European nobility and kings.
At the end of the XIXth – beginning of the XXth centuries the resort became popular among Russian society. Here you could meet Anton Chekhov, Vladimir Nabokov, Fyodor Chaliapin, who bought a villa in Biarritz … The Russian Orthodox Church of Alexander Nevsky, located opposite the Hotel du Palais, remembers well many of our famous compatriots, preserving partly the spirit of distant times.
The days when Biarritz was a resort only for high society are long gone. Today it is an accessible, lively and cosmopolitan city. It has many interesting museums: the Museum of the Sea, which presents the flora and fauna of the Bay of Biscay, the Museum of Old Biarritz, the Museum of Miniature Cars. Villas of XIX and early XX centuries, rather like castles, a wide beach between rocky shores, the ocean power of the surf and gentle, caressing sun, delicious restaurants and beautiful European faces – that’s what still attracts many tourists here today.
If all along the Atlantic coast of France water temperature (even in hot summer) does not exceed 17 ° C, in Biarritz, thanks to the Gulf Stream, it reaches 25 ° C.
Here you can hang around the city, swim and sunbathe, go shopping – both in the most prestigious boutiques and more modest stores, do sports. Already a century ago the British began to organize golf tournaments and horse riding competitions here. And thanks to the special shape of the bottom, which contributes to the formation of continuous waves, Biarritz has recently attracted a special audience: from all over the world come here surfers to “catch a wave”.
Well, if you want powerful sensations without extreme physical effort, it is enough to go to the northern cape of the city, St. Maarten, and, having overcome 248 (!) steps, climb the lighthouse to imagine yourself a mighty captain of a huge ship and, drunk with delight, see the world at your feet.
