Biarritz, the grande dame of French beach towns, is suddenly feeling rather sprightly, and that’s a good thing. Nouvelles Vagues - Biarritz International Film Festival, which showcased next-gen filmmakers, was a hit when it debuted, in June 2023, and the storied Regina Experimental Biarritz hotel, which opened as Le Regina Hotel & Spa in 1907, recently received a sexy makeover by interior designer Dorothée Meilichzon.
What a difference 85 years makes! After Cannes beat out Biarritz to become the venue of France’s best-known film festival, in 1939, the Basque Country resort settled into being a mannered bourgeois getaway. Think bridge parties, cashmere cardigans, golf dates, and gossipy tête-à-têtes in fancy tearooms.
But today Biarritz is benefiting from an influx of young people, part of the post-pandemic diaspora of arty Parisians to France’s second-tier cities and most desirable rural regions. Whether they’re designing sportswear or surfboards, rebooting regional publishing, renewing local vineyards, opening casually stylish hotels, or organizing tours of the Basque Country, these newcomers are disrupting a scene that’s distinctively local but very cosmopolitan.
“Moving here was an easy decision,” says ex-Parisian Valentine Cinier, whose publishing company, Éditions Papier, primarily produces beautifully photographed regional guides. “There’s a growing hive of really smart people doing interesting things. It took Covid for us to understand that the excellence of France’s infrastructure means that you don’t need to live in Paris anymore.”
François Lemarié, another former Parisian, who reports his culinary findings to a rapt audience on Instagram, came to the same conclusion. “The food scene here is just off the charts,” he says. “It’s all about small places where chefs are cooking from their hearts using gorgeous produce from the small farms of the Basque Country, as opposed to the P.R.-driven tables in Paris.”
Biarritz was a whaling port until 1854, when Emperor Napoleon III commissioned a beachside palace for his wife, Empress Eugénie de Montijo. Learning of this impending royal arrival, the novelist Victor Hugo, who’d already been visiting Biarritz for a decade, was fretful. “My only fear is Biarritz becoming fashionable,” he wrote in The Alps and the Pyrenees. “Whether this happens, the wild village, rural and still honest Biarritz, will be money-hungry. Biarritz will put poplars in the hills, railings in the dunes, kiosks in the rocks, seats in the caves, trousers worn on tourists.”
Hugo was prescient, and Biarritz became one of the most stylish resorts in Europe, drawing nobles such as Leopold of Belgium, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, Oscar II of Sweden, Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia, Natalie of Serbia, and, later, Britain’s playboy prince Edward VII. The lights dimmed during two world wars, and Cannes came to symbolize glamour in postwar France. Biarritz never fell entirely out of fashion, but its allure diminished.
“Biarritz was really just waiting to happen,” says Pierre-Charles Cros, a co-founder of the Paris-based Experimental Group, which owns the Regina. “The beaches are spectacular, it has amazing 19th-century architecture, and also a distinctive identity.” No wonder it’s attracting what he describes as “design-alert, food-and-drink-loving cosmopolitan nomads.”
The Regina is located on a ridge above Miramar Beach, and it’s a short walk from the Phare de Biarritz, a scenic point on the coast anchored by a lighthouse. Hotel shuttles deliver guests downtown in less than 15 minutes. (Don’t drive yourself; parking is impossible.)
Experimental entrusted the renovation to Meilichzon, who was named Hotel Designer of the Year by House & Garden in 2023. Her puckish nautical décor brings a visual wit and humor to the Belle Époque beauty. Rounded, straw-covered pillars re-scale the soaring, four-story space to make it feel intimate, and sofas covered in striped fabric reference the well-known Basque linen still produced in the region by companies such as Jean-Vier.
Chef Gregory Marchand wrote the menu for the Regina’s restaurant, Frenchie Biarritz, an outpost of his always-packed Parisian restaurant, with terrific results. Don’t miss the local smoked Banka trout, Kintoa pork, or cheese tray from Beñat, an esteemed local fromagerie. Since cocktails are Experimental’s field of expertise, the bar list runs to such trippy tipples as an Argi Angurri, made with white tequila and rosemary honey with a jolt of heat from piment d’Espelette, the fiery red pepper.
As delightful as Biarritz is during the summer, it’s also a perfect winter-holiday destination for those who don’t ski. Whether it’s a brisk walk on the beach or a lazy afternoon at the spa, there are plenty of ways to fill the hours. A long, leisurely meal at a tiny restaurant such as Australian chef Luke Dolphin’s Pluviôse, in nearby Saint-Jean-de-Luz, is also a good idea. There’s nothing wrong with cocooning oneself in a cozy sea-view room at the Regina with a novel and a bar of single-bean chocolate made by Ronan Lagadec and Cyril Pouil, who own the Monsieur Txokola boutiques, in Biarritz and Bayonne.
Across the street from the Regina is the Hôtel Le Garage Biarritz, also owned by the Experimental Group, which occupies the Regina’s former Art Deco garage. Its suites include access to nearly all of the Regina’s facilities and amenities and are an excellent value.
Rooms at the Regina Experimental Biarritz begin at $250 per night, while suites at the Hôtel Le Garage begin at $200 per night
Alexander Lobrano is a Writer at Large at AIR MAIL. His latest book is the gastronomic coming-of-age story My Place at the Table: A Recipe for a Delicious Life in Paris