The best surf & design hotels · Biarritz & the French Basque Coast
L'Auberge Basque
Cédric Béchade trained at the Hôtel du Palais in Biarritz, then worked alongside Jean-François Piège at the Plaza Athénée in Paris, then spent four years looking for the right farmhouse. He found it in 2006 — a 1672 Basque farmhouse in the hamlet of Helbarron, owned by three sisters who still live next door. The renovation added a contemporary wing facing La Rhune and produced a building that is authentically old and unapologetically modern. Twelve rooms, furnished throughout by Flamant, each different. Saint-Jean-de-Luz and the coast are seven kilometres away. L'Auberge Basque is the hotel that explains what the Basque Country actually is, once you get past the cliff road.
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The hotel
The Food
100% producers. No industrial products in the kitchen. The farmhouse is older than the French Republic.
Béchade eliminated all industrial products from his kitchen in 2007 and buys exclusively from named producers — the menu moves with what arrives. Squid, bluefin tuna, Ibaiama pork, yuzu from Ahyerre. La Table de Cédric Béchade holds a Michelin star. The tasting dinner is called Randonnée Culinaire — a culinary walk through the Basque terroir. The terrace faces La Rhune. The wine list is the region.
The Food
100% producers. No industrial products in the kitchen. The farmhouse is older than the French Republic.
Béchade eliminated all industrial products from his kitchen in 2007 and buys exclusively from named producers — the menu moves with what arrives. Squid, bluefin tuna, Ibaiama pork, yuzu from Ahyerre. La Table de Cédric Béchade holds a Michelin star. The tasting dinner is called Randonnée Culinaire — a culinary walk through the Basque terroir. The terrace faces La Rhune. The wine list is the region.
