Biarritz has been part of the Tour de France's story since its early decades — in 1910, after Octave Lapize's famous "Assassins!" outburst on the first mountain stage through the Pyrenees, that day's race finished in nearby Bayonne, and riders including François Faber and Louis Trousselier spent the evening strolling Biarritz's seafront.
The town remains the natural coastal base for riding the French Basque Country today: the Vélodyssée passes directly through on its way down to the Spanish border, while inland routes climb toward Ascain and the Col Saint-Ignace, where a rack railway continues to the 905-metre summit of La Rhune, the region's defining peak, with views over the Atlantic and into the Pyrenees.
Further inland, quiet roads link hilltop villages like Sare and Ainhoa, deep in Basque hinterland largely untouched by coastal traffic. Biarritz pairs beach-town ease with immediate access to some of the most characterful climbing in southwest France.
