Saint-Jean-de-Luz

A working fishing port with one of the best sheltered beaches on this coast inside its sea walls, and a town behind it that still looks Basque rather than built for tourists: red-shuttered hotels, timber balconies, and the church where Louis XIV was married a street back from the front. Come down off La Rhune in the afternoon, walk the Grande Plage at low tide, and eat on the harbour.