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The rolling and sublime French coastline is home to dozens of first-rate surf breaks, as well as Europe's oldest and most diverse surf culture. While surfing has taken root on the French Mediterranean, as well as the northwest-facing beaches along the English Channel, the majority of worthwhile French surf breaks—and virtually the entire French surf industry—is located along a 400-mile coastline in the Bay of Biscay that can be divided into three main surfing areas: 

1) The long and rocky shoreline north of the Gironde River, including Brittany and the Côte de Lumiere, characterized by extreme tides and a range of temperamental reef- and beachbreaks, all of them compromised to a degree by a wave-reducing offshore continental shelf. 

2) The Aquitaine coast, south of the Gironde, consisting primarily of 125 miles of sandy beaches terminating at the southern end at Hossegor, which is often cited as the world's best beachbreak. 

3) The reef- and beachbreak- studded French Basque coast, just north of the Spanish border, home to the celebrated reefbreaks of Guethary and Lafitenia, as well as Biarritz, the birthplace of European surfing.

September, October, and early November are the best months for surfing on the west coast of France, as offshore winds are common, water and air temperatures are still comfortable, and North Atlantic storms—France's primary source of waves—regularly produce three- to eight-foot waves. 

The surf at Hossegor and the Basque coast is always bigger than that found to the north, due to an offshore trench that allows incoming swells to advance at full strength. Enormous tidal changes (up to 23 feet along the Basque coast and up to 50 feet in the northwest) make French Atlantic coast surfing a hit-or-miss proposition; excellent sandbar waves can disintegrate within the hour into a morass of riptides. 

Winter surfing in France is marked by dramatic weather changes ("with four seasons packed into one day," as described by California surf journalist Kevin Naughton), and waves can hit 15 feet or bigger. Summer beach conditions in the Bay of Biscay are generally hot and waveless. Average daytime air temperatures in the Basque area range from the low 50s (winter) to the mid-70s (summer); water temperatures range from the upper 40s to the low 70s. Temperatures around Brittany are a few degrees colder. French surfing hazards include a few shallow rock reefs in the north and far south, and pollution near many of the rivermouths.

The French were riding bellyboards as far back as the 1930s, but stand-up surfing wasn't introduced here until 1957, when Hollywood screenwriter Peter Viertel and Richard Zanuck, son of Twentieth Century Fox's chief Darryl Zanuck, flew into Biarritz for the filming of 

, spotted some likely-looking waves, prompting them to ship over from California a Velzy-Jacobs pig model. Viertel lent the board to a few local bodysurfers, including 18-year-old Paris-born ski racer Joel de Rosnay (who became the first national French surfing champion in 1960), Jacques Rott, Georges Hennebutte, Jo Moraiz, and Bruno Reinhardt. They were soon joined by engineer Michel Barland. 

Hollywood actress Deborah Kerr, Viertel's wife, became the patroness of France's first surfing organization, the 1962-established Waikiki Surf Club, cofounded by Moraiz and Peruvian surfing godfather Carlos Dogny. Barland was by that time making and selling surfboards out of a machine shop in nearby Bayonne (he would later invent the computer-driven shaping machine). 

The sport steadily gained popularity in the early and mid-'60s. 

, the first French-language surfing magazine, debuted in 1964, the same year de Rosnay was France's sole representative in the first World Surfing Championships, held in Sydney, Australia. Jo Moraiz Surf Shop, the first shop of its kind in France, opened in 1965.

The surf world at large paid little attention to France until the late 1960s, when two popular surf movies, 

, both featured perfect beachbreak waves at Hossegor and La Barre, near Biarritz. (To the great dismay of locals and visiting surfers, La Barre was destroyed by a river dredging project in the early '70s.) 

The French International Open, the country's first major surf contest, was held at La Barre in 1968, and won by Australian teenage phenomenon Wayne Lynch. Hundreds of surfers made extended visits to France over the next few years, including surfboard shaper Mike Diffenderfer, Malibu icon Mickey Dora, and Hawaiian powerhouse Jeff Hakman. 

"I read all the Henry Miller novels while in France one year," British-born surf journalist Paul Holmes wistfully recalled in 1987, and defined his "romance" with France in terms of perfect empty beachbreak waves, steaming bowls of soupe de poissons, and cups of pitch-black coffee served at sidewalk bistros. World tour mainstays Tom Curren and Gary Elkerton both married French women in the '80s and moved to the southern Bay of Biscay. French-born surfers, despite a steady flow of high-quality waves, have meanwhile showed mixed results in the world of pro surfing. Gerard Dabbadie, 1975 European surfing champion, was the top French surfer of his generation; handsome blond-haired Thierry Domenech was the country's best, and best-known, rider from the mid-'80s to the mid-'90s. 

Top present-day French surfers include Jeremy Flores, Marc Lacamore, Joan Duru, Mikael Picon, Christian "Che" Guevara, Pauline Ado, and Justine DuPont. In 2004, Eric Rebiere became the first French surfer to qualify for the World Championship Tour. Biarritz-based Sylvain Cazenave has meanwhile been one of international surfing's top photographers since the late '80s.

As of the 2012, France was home to about 200 surf shops, 100 surf schools, 50 surf clubs, 80,000 surfers (most of whom only surf in the warmer months of summer and fall), a handful of French-language surf magazines (including 

, and a slate of international contests, including men's and women's World Championship Tour events. The World Amateur Surfing Championships were held in France in 1980 and 1992. Quiksilver, Rip Curl, Billabong, and O'Neill are among the international surf companies with regional headquarters in or near Biarritz, along with domestic beachwear giant Oxbow. 

In early 2003, the oil tanker Prestige broke apart and sank off the Spanish coast, spilling 70,000 tons of heavy fuel. Most of the Atlantic-facing French coast was closed to surfing. 

Guidebook on the French Coast: Surf and Beaches

 was published in 1979; the French surf is also featured in both 

France

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