On Homeaway.com, we booked our vacation rental for the most recent holiday. Our vacation home, a renovated fisher home, was in the best location we could have hoped for.

We had the one with the blue doors and shutters. What might look like weeds in front of the houses are actually wild flowers. They do look prettier on sunny days. There is a little sign above the door – Suliko (little soul) – which is the name of the house.

Everything was in walking distance – the beach, the town centre, the market, and cafés and restaurants. Sitting on the little terrace, I only had to turn my head around the hedge to see the ocean across the street.

Biarritz beach – one minute away from 9 rue Cité Cany

Our landlady, Anne, was most forthcoming in everything we needed. And she was still kind after we had to report a minor damage caused by one of our children. She was most helpful in helping settling this, like a friend.

The home had most amenities except a hair dryer. I guess we could have asked for one. We had good internet connection, plenty of coffee and wine on our arrival, and the house, though centrally located, is in a very quiet neighborhood.

Parking is a challenge during this time a year. We flew into Bilbao/Spain and had to get a rental car. The rental car lady tried to sell us all kinds of stuff, such as an upgrade to a station car (we could hardly find one parking space in Biarritz, let alone two!), she tried to sell us navigation for 99 euro a week (by golly, we are on holiday, I do not need to know where I am going) and she tried to sell us full-coverage insurance (we had the car parked 12 out of 14 days).

We used our legs most of the time. There is a lot of up and down walking and we felt it in the evening. Free exercise.

A couple of evenings, my husband and I grabbed a bottle of wine and just walked across the street to the beach to enjoy the sunset. There is nothing better than that.

Biarritz is a lively little town and actually, I could have stayed a bit longer.

For more photos and information about this rental home, visit Homeaway.com. Highly recommendable.