Golf De Chiberta - France

Biarritz, the sophisticated resort on the Cote Basque first popularized by Napoleon III and the Empress Josephine, has the strongest golfing tradition of any part of France, and the most exciting combination of old and new courses. Golf in Biarritz began with the famous course laid out in 1888 by the Scottish pros Willie and Tom Dunn near the lighthouse or le Phare, which is still thriving, although in modified form, today. Chiberta is an exceptionally elegant seaside course just north of Biarritz, in Anglet, founded in 1927 by the immensely wealthy Belgian banker Albert Lowenstein. Designed by the patrician English architect Tom Simpson, who did much of his best work in France, the first hole runs down to a green framed by a Moorish-style palace. Simpson created a syncopated balance between the hushed holes that run through the woods and others that burst exuberantly into the open linksland along the beach of Chiberta, with its scores of surfers riding the long Atlantic rollers.

Golf De Seignosse - France

Golf de Seignosse is about 20 miles north of Biarritz, located in Les Landes-a marshy area of ferns and bracken, where the inhabitants used to get around on stilts. The dominant feature of this sparsely inhabited area is the seemingly endless colonnades of straight umbrella pines planted in the 19th century to curb erosion of the sandy soil. Designed by American architect Robert von Hagge and opened in 1989, the course's narrow fairways are cut through the secluded valleys and ridges of the Landaise Forest. There are dramatic elevation changes, with the high holes looking across the pine forest out to the Bay of Biscayne. There is also a small golf hotel adjoining the clubhouse, built in the style of a wood-frame New Orleans villa, painted a bright maroon.