Côte des Basques: the beach where French surfing began
Compiled by Surf Haunts · Updated 2026-10-20
Biarritz calls Côte des Basques the cradle of surfing, and for once the slogan has a date behind it. The beach runs south beneath the town's cliffs towards the Bay of Biscay, and at its northern end a pale villa stands on a rock in the water. The surf history is what makes people look twice.
A beach that comes and goes
The city's own page describes a beach framed by cliffs, with a view across to the Spanish coast – and one that disappears completely at high tide when the tidal coefficient passes 45. That is why no two visits look the same: at low water there is a wide strand, at high water the sea meets the rock. Our print shows sand, but makes no claim about how much there is on any given day.
Villa Belza on its rock
At the northern transition into the straight cliffs stands Villa Belza. Biarritz's landscape and heritage study places the villa on a distinct rocky promontory where the Côte des Basques cliff line begins, and the French Ministry of Culture holds a heritage image record of the villa and its coastal setting. In the print the villa keeps that role: a compact mass with pointed roofs, set to one side so the coast can keep moving behind it. The number of windows and turrets is ours, not the architect's.
1957: boards from California
French surfing has a founding story, and it belongs to this beach. According to Le Figaro Nautisme's history of surfing in France, the American screenwriter Peter Viertel was in the region in the wake of the filming of The Sun Also Rises, saw the waves, and came back in 1957 with surfboards from the United States. The first generation of local surfers – the same account names Georges Hennebutte, Jacky Rott and Joël de Rosnay – learned on those boards at Côte des Basques.
Things moved fast. The Waikiki Surf Club was founded in Biarritz in 1959, and in 1964 the French surfing federation was created in the same town. Those dates are the reason the city can call the beach a cradle without exaggerating.
Do you have photographs from the early years?
If you or your family surfed Côte des Basques in the 1950s or 1960s and have pictures with a date, email us. We'd like to add first-hand detail, and we'll ask before publishing anything and agree how to credit you.
Our Côte des Basques print
Our Côte des Basques print sets Villa Belza on its rock in the middle distance, with the beach curving away beneath ochre cliffs and a blue mountain profile beyond. No surfer appears; the painted waves are a rhythm, not a forecast.
Compiled from public historical sources and fact-checked against them at the time of writing – not a first-hand or local account. Corrections and memories are welcome; we verify before publishing anything sent in.