Biarritz Hotels

Exposed to the sea breeze, nestling in the Bay of Biscay, Biarritz is an ocean town.
The ocean has always demonstrated its force with its omnipresent western swell.
With its huge beaches, powerful waves and mild climate all year round, Biarritz was the natural choice in 1957 to welcome the first surfers on the European continent and to become Europe's historical surfing capital.

It is also thanks to the legendary mildness of the local climate that thalassotherapy and year-round golf have developed so well.

History :

I n days long since gone, the coast that was to become the Basque and Biarritz coast was a comfortless, sparse stretch of land. Biarritz was a poor village which barely lived off its fishing products; there were dunes covered with dry, charred grass, set alongside an ocean that was often savage, beating against an inaccessible, fearsome coastline.

Upon these clay cliffs lived a few hundred men and women of a particular race and religion, who spoke in a mysterious language. In this village lived a beautiful young girl, Miarritze, who one night had a strange dream: the god Yahvé appeared before her and promised her he would send the soul of Martin, his servant, to this abandoned territory. This soul would appear in the form of a bird with coloured feathers, which would carry in its beak a fish with golden scales, a symbol of the wealth and happiness that would one day come to this coast.

The young girl managed to convince the inhabitants, who, a few days later, spotted a beautiful passerine, in fact a kingfisher. This event, along with encouragement from Miarritze, led the inhabitants to build boats to take on the sea. They launched into the great fishing adventure, particularly the many whales that frolicked in the sea.

One day when there was a great storm, Miarritze, standing on the shore, observed the efforts of a boatload of fishermen who were trying to regain the beach, before going aground. She came to their help and welcomed them to her home. They were sailors from Gascony, peaceable yet hardened men and skilled fishermen and sailors. She married their chief. The name of the town came from their marriage and their two names.

Etymology has ignored this legend, preferring the words Bearrids and Beiarrids as the origins of the name, from " beder " or " see", meaning " the place from which one sees".



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