There are elegant landscapes that cannot always be painted by artists, but can be admired by sensitive spirits. They are landscapes with a friendly nature, which man has known how to respect, and often embellish. They are enclaves that have survived the passage of time, as if no one dared to spoil it with bad decisions. And thanks to this they have maintained the symbols, habits and behaviors of their people. The elegance in the landscape is the result of the whim of nature and the education of the human being. And Biarritz is the best example of it. Coco Chanel said it: elegance has nothing to do with money, brands, or status. And in that city in the French Basque Country, her legend began.
It is no coincidence that Gabrielle Chanel opened her first couture house in Biarritz before she did in Paris, in a villa opposite the casino. She had previously opened a boutique in another seaside resort such as Deauville, which attracted pioneering women to adopt her avant-garde hats and sailor shirts, but she was definitely seduced by Biarritz not only because it seemed to her “a paradise of peace by the sea”, but also also because he realized that it was a place that brought together a clientele that reconciled elegance and comfort.
In Biarritz you can breathe the nostalgia of when it was the desired destination for European and Russian royalty. They said that it was the queen of beaches and the beach of kings and this was due to the fact that Eugenia de Montijo fell in love with that pristine and orderly resort, which is why her husband, Napoleon III, ordered the construction of a palace in front of the sea, which today is the Hotel du Palais. This is one of the most beautiful hotel establishments on the planet, which Hyatt renovated a couple of years ago without taking away its aristocratic patina and the charm of its noble halls, where the G-7 summit was held in 2019, on the occasion of the French presidency.
Angela Merkel, Justin Trudeau, Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron, Giuseppe Conte, Shinzo Abe, Boris Johnson and Donald Tusk stayed there, who can testify that the peace that is breathed in Biarritz calms spirits, even if it was not for long . Macron chose well, since he had spent a few summers with his wife, Brigitte, in this French town.
One of the things that the traveler must do in Biarritz is to watch the sun fall over the ocean in the panoramic restaurant La Table d’Aurélien Largeau, chef with a Michelin star. Diners are prohibited from wearing shorts and flip-flops, regardless of where they come from and how much money they have. The elegance of Biarritz is above any coarseness of the flag or the bag. And it is that one cannot eat a lobster and drink a Montrachet while it is getting dark with shorts and sandals, because it does not play. But it also doesn’t taste the same.
Biarritz has unique places that seem to come out of a Viscontinian story. From the cute striped booths of the Grande Plage to the Eiffel metal footbridge that leads to the Rocher de la Vierge, passing through its villas with red roofs, they look like a set from a 1920s film. From that period are the Miremont tea room, a busy belle époque patisserie, where you can have a piece of gâteau basque and a hot chocolate in the middle of the afternoon, or the Casino facing the beach, which sees time pass with the same dignity of the first day
With the authority of those who have spent and spend a few days in Biarritz every summer, I would recommend three places to eat at reasonable prices: the Les Halles market, where there are several very special stalls to eat, such as L’Ecaillerie or the truffe bar Balme, the Chez Albert terrace, in the fishing port, where a plate of fruits de mer awaits you, and a restaurant in the center, small but charming, where two chefs -that’s why the place is called Entre Deux-, manage to feed high-quality, elaborate cuisine without breaking the bank.
Today Biarritz is also a city of young tourism, thanks to its Atlantic waves that attract surfers from half the world and have rejuvenated the town’s clientele. It is a spectacle to see them with their skates at dawn and when it is black at night. It was here that the sport was introduced to Europe, thanks to Peter Viertel, Deborah Kerr’s husband. But it will be because elegance is contagious, I would swear that surfers have a special glamor here. As José Luis de Vilallonga once told me, elegance is where you least expect it, as he had seen very elegant men in the Andalusian countryside and extremely elegant women in the marginal neighborhoods of Naples. He failed to say and among the young surfers of Biarritz.
