Where is Biarritz?
The city is set in the hills in a bay on the southwestern coast of France in the Aquitaine region. The resort is washed by the waters of the Bay of Biscay of the Atlantic Ocean. Biarritz is close to the border with Spain. Cape St. Martin is the notional boundary between the Silver Coast and the rocky Basque lands.
The population of Biarritz is over 25,000, most of whom are French and Spanish.
History of Biarritz
The French Atlantic coast was inhabited as early as the 11th century. It was home to poor fishing villages inhabited by whalers. In the 15th century, the English built a fortified castle on the headland for whale watching and maritime navigation.
Biarritz as a resort was founded only in the mid 50-ies. XIX century. An imperial couple, Napoleon III and his wife Eugenie, came here for a vacation. They spent about two months on the ocean shore. The Empress was so impressed by the healthy air and local beauty that she suggested to her husband to organize here a health center for bohemians. The monarch gladly supported his wife's idea and first built a luxurious villa for his beloved (now the Hotel du Palais). Since then, all the European nobility has been coming to Biarritz, and the city became known as "the beach of kings". At the end of the XIX century, the resort was also favored by representatives of the Russian aristocracy. Fyodor Chaliapin had a private villa here, and the Nabokovs and Anton Chekhov often came to Biarritz for rest and recuperation.
In 1957, another turning point in the city's history came. The American screenwriter Peter Viertel was passing through Biarritz. It was at this time that a friend sent him a surfboard as a gift. As a joke, Virtel decided to try out the surfboard on the local waves. His swim marked the beginning of the surfing era in Biarritz. Today, the resort is considered one of the world's major centers of this water sport.
