Near the Tulip Inn Biarritz, you can do a lot of sports and cultural activities such as:
The famous Basque pelote web site Pelote Basque
Biarritz is, together with Hossegor, the place to be for practicing surfboard.
Surf is a culture in itself, a lifestyle which is largely based on the respect for the nature and the sea.
You can easily get a training in one of the different schools to measure yourself with the waves...
www.surfingbiarritz.com
Golf:
The golf courses of Biarritz offer an exeptional setting which has earned them their reputation.
There are many different Golf areas in the sourounding wich give you the privilege to practice your sport while discovering our region.
The Ilbarritz training center, a complex, unique in Europe with the beauty of its site and its technical level.
An example on the following link:
Golf web site
SPA and Thalassotherapy:
For simple relaxation or for specific cures you can enjoy one of our thalassotherapy center or SPA center.
An example of SPA
An example of Thalassotherapy
The Legend of Biarritz ( by office tourisme of Biarritz )
In 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".
Biarritz becomes a "seaside resort"
Biarrots "did not await the Emperor Napoleon III and Impératrice Eugenie to taste the sea bathings on their long sand beaches. Since 1609, an observer, the Adviser of Lancre, notices this practice which it judges extremely bad: "this mixture of big girls and young fishermen whom one sees at the coast in “mandille”, and very naked below, mixing in the waves"... Biarrots do not certainly have cure of it, and continue to be plunged in the sea, although in 1774 the city refused to them to set up “guérites” to change.
It was not until the middle of the 18th century that bathing was recognized as an efficient therapy for all sorts of ills.
One of the very first famous converts to the Biarritz cause was Victor Hugo, who came here in 1843. Charmed by this "white village with red roofs and green shutters, set on crops of grass", he immediately anticipated that "Biarritz would become fashionable". "The day will come soon!", he remarked with prescience.
Indeed, eleven years later, the countess of Montijo, who had stayed there when she was a child, set up a home there in great luxury after her marriage to Napoleon III, for a two-month stay. Welcomed by a cheering crowd, the imperial couple chose Château de Gramont, which belonged to the Mayor of Bayonne, as their residence.
Napoleon very soon had a summer residence built for his wife, called La Villa Eugénie, and the couple came every year until 1868, to enjoy the benefits of the sea and the climate. In their wake came many royal heads to discover this town. Kings of Würtenberg, Belgium and Portugal, Russian, Polish and Rumanian princes, Grands of Spain and Lords of England all gave an elevated status to Biarritz, which by then counted 10,000 holidaymakers each season.
Society life and night owls
At the end of the century, the Belle Epoque succeeded the Second Empire and the royalty of the Republic adopted this holiday place. By this time the town had taken on residences of varied, flamboyant styles. Sadi Carnot, Poincaré, Clemenceau, Jules Ferry, Alexandre Dumas, Zola met each other along the beaches. The English aristocrats whose ancestors had discovered the place at the beginning of the century during the Napoleonic wars, came here in the wake of the Prince of Wales, future Edward VII, who spent five seasons in the former imperial residence, transformed into a hotel in 1893, the Hôtel du Palais.
It was the English who gave Biarritz its first golf course, the Golf du Phare, and its first horseriding competitions. As for the beautiful Elisabeth of Austria, known as "Sissi", she found consolation here in her suffering.
A the turn of the century, the brand new Casino Municipal and the Casino Bellevue attracted stars from the entertainments world, as well as big-time gamblers. Sarah Bernhardt and Lucien Guitry, father of Sacha, entertained there. Once the show was over they danced all night. The distinguished society entertainment of the previous century was replaced by the wild nights of the new Parisian night owls. Here, people danced the brand new charleston in the 1920s, and the owners of the big villas held dances for their friends in their parks. Including the palace of Queen Nathalie of Serbia, which became "le Pavillon Royal".
After the second world war, Biarritz cheered up again thanks to the sumptuous parties given by the Marquis de Cuevas. Royalty always came: Farouk of Egypt, Michael of Roumania, Peter of Yougoslavia. But also cinema stars, such as Rita Hayworth, who stopped by with the Aga Khan, or Frank Sinatra, Gary Cooper and Bing Crosby.
