A few streets back from the sheltered cove where Biarritz swims all year.
Five minutes on foot through the Halles market district brings you to the Plage du Port Vieux, a small beach tucked into a rocky cove in the middle of town. It is sheltered from the swell that makes the Grande Plage and the Côte des Basques better known for surfing than for swimming, and it is where Biarritz actually swims: Les Ours Blancs, the White Bears, have been going in there year round since 1929, and not in wetsuits. The hotel itself occupies one of Biarritz's oldest buildings, once home to a finance minister under Louis XV.