Basque coast and Landes
A wave pulled the watch off your wrist at the Côte des Basques
Here the tide decides how long the sand stays open, so note the time first.
There is still a chance of finding a watch pulled off by a wave at the Côte des Basques in Biarritz, and on this beach the tide sets the timetable. At low tide the beach is a vast stretch of fine sand, and on a tide with a coefficient above 45 the sea covers all of it. Beyond that, it comes down to how closely you can place yourself on the sand when the wave hit.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewellery recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch, keys or phone in Biarritz, Anglet, Saint-Jean-de-Luz or Hossegor with a metal detectorist who can search there.
Tell us what happened and where. We find a detectorist who can reach the beach, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
The hour on your phone, then the tide
Write down the time you noticed the watch was gone and when you last saw it on your wrist. Then look up that day's tide for Bayonne on the SHOM tide tables, which show whether your spot was under the sea at that hour.
A map pin from where your towel lay, and a photo from the same spot that takes in the cliffs or a groyne, let a detectorist stand where you stood. Surfers can add where they paddled out and where they came back in.
Places we cover on the Basque coast and in the Landes
- Biarritz
- The Côte des Basques
- The Grande Plage, Biarritz
- Plage du Miramar
- Plage du Port Vieux
- Marbella and Milady
- Anglet
- The Chambre d'Amour quarter
- Plage du Club
- Plage des Sables d'Or
- Plage de Marinella
- Plage des Corsaires
- The Petite Madrague and the Madrague
- Plage de l'Océan
- Plage des Dunes
- Plage des Cavaliers
- Plage de La Barre
- Saint-Jean-de-Luz
- The Grande Plage, Saint-Jean-de-Luz
- Rue Gambetta and the old centre
- Erromardie and Lafitenia
- Soorts-Hossegor
- Plage Sud and Plage Centrale
- La Gravière
- Lac d'Hossegor
- Plage du Parc and Plage du Rey
- Plage Blanche and the Chênes-Lièges
Surf beaches, groynes, a sheltered bay and a tidal lake
Biarritz, Anglet and Saint-Jean-de-Luz on the Basque coast, and Soorts-Hossegor on the Landes coast.
The Côte des Basques, Biarritz
Framed by cliffs, the Côte des Basques is known as the cradle of surfing. As the tide rises the waves reach the rock armour, and on a coefficient above 45 no beach is left. Say how far from those rocks you were.
The Grande Plage, the Miramar and the Port Vieux, Biarritz
In the heart of Biarritz, the Grande Plage is lined by a promenade, shops and restaurants, and runs up to the Miramar, a sheltered beach below the lighthouse. On the other side of the centre, the Port Vieux is a small beach tucked between rocks where families swim. South of the Côte des Basques, Marbella draws experienced surfers and Milady is a wide family beach with play areas and a promenade.
Plage du Club and the Sables d'Or, Anglet
Both are town beaches in the Chambre d'Amour quarter. The Club, a small beach between two groynes, is crowded with surfers at low tide and covered completely at high tide. The Sables d'Or, ringed by bars and restaurants, is busy all year.
Marinella, the Corsaires and the two Madragues, Anglet
Marinella is a long beach lined with groynes, used by families and surfers alike. Its neighbour, the Corsaires, is backed by green spaces and marks where Anglet's town beaches give way to the more natural beaches of the north. The Petite Madrague and the Madrague come next.
L'Océan, the Dunes and the Cavaliers, Anglet
These are the wilder beaches beside the golf course. At the Océan a wartime blockhouse stands between the golf course and the sand. The Dunes is reached only through an underpass beneath the golf course, so fewer people go. The Cavaliers has powerful waves and long strips of lawn behind it.
La Barre, Anglet
The smallest of Anglet's beaches sits by the mouth of the Adour, tucked between two long groynes, and it is the calmest along this shore. Blockhouses from the Occupation have been made into terraces along a walk beside it.
The Grande Plage and the old centre, Saint-Jean-de-Luz
The Grande Plage curves round the bay a short walk from the port. Three breakwaters out in the bay hold back the big waves, so the sand is fine, the water calm, and rafts are moored close in. Above it runs the promenade, from the red lighthouse to the Art Deco casino building, lined with houses whose footbridges reach out over the beach. Rue Gambetta, closed to cars, leads from the beach into the old centre. Along the coastal path, Erromardie is a surf beach a kilometre and a half from the centre, and Lafitenia is a wide cove below cliffs, with stones and rocks underfoot.
Plage Sud, Plage Centrale and La Gravière, Hossegor
Plage Sud has calmer water, away from the baïnes and heavy rollers. Plage Centrale is in the middle of town. La Gravière, famous for powerful, tubing waves, is a wide ribbon of golden sand edged with dunes and pines.
The lake beaches, Lac d'Hossegor
Lac d'Hossegor is a sea lake ringed by maritime pines, with calm, shallow water along its beaches. People paddleboard and kayak from the Plage du Parc. The Plage du Rey is edged with pines and reed beds, the Plage Blanche lies on the east shore, and the Chênes-Lièges on the south-east shore.
What happens to your times and photos
One chat, start to finish
Every message and photo goes into one WhatsApp chat, read by the person who writes the brief.
Your times beside the tide table
We line up your times with that day's tide, so the detectorist knows which band of sand was open when it happened.
Between which groynes
At Anglet the brief names the groynes on either side of you, since the Club and La Barre each sit between two of them and Marinella is lined with them.
The money question
We explain the costs before any search is booked, and any question about them gets a straight answer in the chat.
Tides that open and close the sand
On this coast the same beach can be wide open at low water and gone at high water.
Two tides a day, and the coefficient
On the ocean beaches at Hossegor there are two high and two low tides a day, and the range grows with the coefficient. The hour you lost something, set against that day's tide, tells us whether the spot was under water.
A lake that follows the sea
Lac d'Hossegor rises and falls with the ocean through the Boucarot canal, more gently and slightly out of step with it. At low water, depending on the coefficient, some parts of it are very shallow or uncovered.
Questions about the Basque coast and Hossegor
A wave has just taken my watch at the Côte des Basques and the tide is coming in. Should I message you today?
Yes, today rather than tomorrow. On a coefficient above 45 the whole beach goes under until the water drops back, so use that time to fix the spot: how far you were from the foot of the cliffs, which way you came down, and the time when the wave hit. A search there is fitted around low water.
Surfing at the Plage du Club in Anglet, I came in without my ring.
The Club is covered completely at high tide and crowded with surfers at low tide, so the hour you came in matters as much as the place. Tell us which groyne you paddled out beside and when you last knew the ring was on your finger. One that came off out where the surfers wait for waves is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first.
We think the car keys dropped on the grass behind the Cavaliers, not on the beach.
Then the long strips of lawn behind the beach come first. Paths run through them, and there is a playground at the edge of the golf course. Tell us which path you used, where you sat, and what else hung on the key ring.
The shore break at Plage Centrale in Hossegor took an earring.
Plage Centrale has a lifeguard post in season, a fixed point to measure from. Tell us whether the post was to your left or right as you looked out to sea, how deep the water was, and the time.
Does the tide on Lac d'Hossegor matter for a wedding band dropped by the Chênes-Lièges beach?
It does, though less than on the ocean, because the lake's tide is gentler and slightly out of step with the ocean. The Chênes-Lièges beach is shaded by the cork oaks it is named after, so tell us which tree you were nearest, how deep you stood, and the time.
I swam out to a raft off the Grande Plage in Saint-Jean-de-Luz and came back without my ring.
Say which raft, and where you went in compared with the lifeguard post. The breakwaters out in the bay keep the water calm, and a net marks how far out you may swim, though its distance from the sand changes with the tide. Give us the time, and name the house or footbridge on the promenade that was straight behind you.
My phone slipped out of a bag while we walked along rue Gambetta in Saint-Jean-de-Luz.
Rue Gambetta is the pedestrian main street of the old centre, and the streets around it lead to the Place Louis XIV and the port. Write down the order you walked in, where the bag was put down, and when you last used the phone.
The swimming area on the Grande Plage in Biarritz had moved by the afternoon. Does that matter?
Only if you describe the flags rather than the sand. The bathing and surfing zones there are often moved with the tide and the state of the sea, so tell us what was straight inland from your towel and how far down the sand you were. If you had walked on towards the lighthouse, that is the Miramar.
We were watching the surf at La Gravière, and afterwards my chain was not round my neck.
Swimming at La Gravière is not supervised, so there is no lifeguard post to use as a marker. Tell us which way you came onto the beach, how far above the water you sat, and whether the tide was rising or falling. A photo from your spot that takes in the dunes helps too.
Basque coast and Landes
Send the time along with the beach
From the Côte des Basques to the lake at Hossegor.
Open a WhatsApp chat with the name of the beach, roughly when it happened and a map pin. We read any time you give against the tide, so an approximate one still helps.