Skip The French Riviera For This Resort Town On France's Atlantic Coast With Fewer Crowds

You can head to the quieter Riviera beach town of Menton instead of visiting its name-droppy neighbors, or take a pass on the French Riviera in the summertime high season all together. If you're as in-the-know as the French, you might head west to Basque country, where royalty like Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie, as well as style icons Frank Sinatra and Coco Chanel, enjoyed the wild Atlantic Coast destination of Biarritz back in the days. With those high society connections faded, the town has become a more equal-opportunity tourist destination known as Europe's surfing capital, as well as a delight for sunbathers, golfers, and spa-seekers who are totally over those Mediterranean vibes of the country's "other" coast.

You can reach Biarritz from Paris in four and a half hours on a high-speed French TGV train, or via Bordeaux in just over two hours. It's about 90 miles from Bilbao, Spain, and only 22 miles up the Atlantic coast from the San Sebastian airport. Biarritz itself has an airport, the Pays Basque Airport, with direct flights from cities in France, Germany, the U.K., Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden. At the foothills of the Pyrenees, the varied landscape offers wave-friendly beaches under a stunning backdrop of cliffs and mountains.

It's easy to visit Biarritz's beaches from the center viewpoint, the Rock of the Blessed Virgin, which is a hollowed-out rock that rises from the water and is embellished with a statue of the Virgin Mary that dates from 1865. It is accessible via a boardwalk bridge built by none other than Gustav Eiffel, architect of an iconic monument that bears his name, as well as a few other secrets.

To the south of the Rock of the Blessed Virgin, the wild Côte des Basques is accessible via cliffside parking by steps and path down to the beach, as well as a free shuttle. From May until October, the beach is supervised during the daytime, from around 12 p.m. until 6 p.m. (or 7 p.m. in June, July, and August). At high tide, the sand disappears and bathing is suspended. On the other side of the central statue is Le Grande Plage, a more sheltered beach popular with families with easy access to the town. This beach is supervised from April until November, with hours varying depending on the month.

Although it's not a major port like France's overlooked and oldest city, the medieval whaling and fishing village of Biarritz was defined by its 1834 lighthouse (you can visit it by climbing 258 steps for some great views of the coast), Biarritz really came into its own in the mid-1800s, when Napoleon III built a winter residence there for his Empress Eugenie, from Spain. Hotel du Palais, the converted residence of Empress Eugenie, looks out across Le Grande Plage on 1 Avenue de l'Imperatrice and offers stunning views of the ocean. Today, posh visitors can stay there for a cool €430 in the off-season. Rooms rent for upwards of €1000 per night in the summer.

For an easy visit nearby, the Byzantine-style Orthodox Church, built in 1892, is just down the road at 8 Avenue de L'Imperatrice and is free to visit from 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. On the Avenue Reine Victoria, the 1834 Imperial Chapel mixes Hispanic-Moorish architecture with Roman-Byzantine, which you'll learn about on a 45-minute guided tour for €6. And don't forget the beautiful art deco Biarritz Aquarium, which dates back to 1933. The idea for it, sparked by a French scientist in 1880 with a passion for sharing oceanic exploration with the general public, took decades to actualize, but we're rewarded today with an extensive and exciting collection. The aquarium opens from 9:30 a.m. until 7 p.m. daily and costs €16.50 for adults.