In 1855, when the Empress Eugénie built a villa where the huge red-and-white pile of the Hôtel du Palais now stands, and began to make Biarritz popular, a favourite means of reaching the place was that called the _cacolet_. Two people rode in baskets or panniers slung on either side of a mule led by a Basque girl, as shown in the illustration reproduced on page 189. Perhaps the reasons that have made Biarritz popular are, firstly, that it is neither too big nor too small; secondly, that it has very beautiful mountain scenery at its very doors; thirdly, that it is King Edward VII.’s favourite seaside resort; fourthly, that the coast is one of exceptional beauty; and, lastly, because the hotels are very reasonable in their prices in winter and spring. To those for whom the sea has charms there is an extraordinary appeal in the huge Atlantic waves that seem for ever to break on the rocky coast, ‘Champing and whirling white foam about their green flanks, And tossing on high their manes of sunlit rainbow-gold, Dazzling white and multitudinous, Far as sight can reach.’[F] And at sunset, when the mountains respond to the western glories, and a trackway of burnished gold goes across the heaving waters to a fiery red disc that hangs above the horizon, there is such a charm about the place that the very thought of leaving is distressing. The central portion of the town is built on a flat-topped promontory with deeply indented margins, fringed with isolated masses of rock, some of which have been joined with sea-walls to make small harbours for the fishing-boats. At the extreme point is the unfinished harbour of refuge begun by Napoleon III. and partially demolished by the [Illustration: HOW BIARRITZ WAS VISITED IN 1813. _Reproduced by permission from ‘The Battles of the Nivelle and Nive,’ by Colonel Hill James._] [Illustration: TOWN PLAN NO. 15.--BIARRITZ.] waves, and raised picturesquely on a rock above it is a statue of the Virgin. The promontory bears the Moro-Spanish name of Atalaye, and still retains slight ruins of the Château of Ferragus, built in the thirteenth century to guard the harbour. A little to the south-east of the town is the only other early structure of Biarritz--the Church of St. Martin, dating back in part to the same period as the château. The pillars are dated 1541. Sir John Hope--afterwards the Earl of Hopetoun--to whom reference has been made in connection with Bayonne, had his headquarters for a time in a house above the Vieux Port. The walks and drives that have been made round the promontory are delightful places in which to be industriously idle while watching the breaking waves, the curving sweep of sandy shore towards the blue mountains beyond the Spanish frontier, and the foreground of French, English, and cosmopolitan visitors.