A rumor has crossed the Atlantic. There would exist, in France, a place where professional success and personal fulfillment are reconcilable. A sunny setting of raw beauty, rich in coworking spaces and surf sites. Her name ? Biarritz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques). His nickname? “French California”according to the terms used by an article from New York Times. We learn that this former vacation spot for bourgeois retirees has since been transformed, thanks to the arrival of “young, trendy Parisians”, “at the forefront of bohemia”.
Sculpted bodies, trendy bars, nearby ocean… The town nestled in the hollow of the Bay of Biscay has the air of Silicon Valley. “We find the same proximity to nature, the same cosmopolitanism too, on the scale of France. In Biarritz, we all come from the four corners of France, and we all immigrated for the same reason: the quest for a better quality of life, far removed from megacities, which no longer appeal to the younger generation. All my friends have arrived here in the last six years”, summarizes Julien Motte, 30 years old. Originally from Lille, this Edhec graduate spent most of his career in San Francisco before setting up in the seaside city of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques in 2021, while the head office of his start-up in green tech is domiciled in Lille: “ The whole team is full remote [travailler sans jamais venir dans les locaux de l’entreprise]. Out of five, three of us chose Biarritz. Here, I organize my meetings according to the tides, to go surfing. It forces me to have a balanced life. »
The thirty-year-old rents offices at the Connector, a new 500 m coworking space2ideally located between the city center, the station and the airport, and with all the comforts: offices with sea or mountain views, terraces, cafeteria, gym, and even a rack for storing skateboards. surf.
“Our audience is mostly female, with an over-representation of the 30-40 year old age group. This is the generation comfortable with the hybridization of work”, analyzes Thibault Saint-Georges-Chaumet, deputy general director of the Connector. The site hosts 165 companies. If only 20% are domiciled in Paris – most come from the Greater South West – the building conveys a lot of fantasies. “ It is being called a new temple for Parisian bobos. We must work with humility to be better understood by the population”, recognizes Mr. Saint-Georges-Chaumet.
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