But the more you look at the sea, the more fascinating, it becomes.

From the huge picture windows on the first floor of the Casino Municipale in Biarritz there is an untrammelled view of the Atlantic - dark waves smashing into white on the smooth sand of the Grand Plage.

This past weekend, inside the Casino’s Art Nouveau  period theatre, there has been another mysterious spectacle – the International Fitness and Body Building Federation’s World Fitness Championships.

Again, the more you look at it…

Two full days of competition, largely for women, involved a range of categories – Bodyfitness, Fitness, Bikini Fitness, Physique, Wellness Fitness.

To the inexpert eye, there appeared to be some basic differences. The Women’s Physique category was clearly intended to show off bodies that had been developed for muscular power and definition. The Women’s Bodyfitness competitors were not of the same order of development, but still more generally powerful and wide-shouldered than those in the Bikini Fitness category.

The auditorium, well populated on both days and resonant with enthusiastic  support, was full of fellow competitors, bodybuilding enthusiasts, friends, relations. It definitely had the feel of a community – one which, indeed, embraced more than 50 competing nations.

I had arrived with the idea that these Championships would be more about what people were, rather than what they did. At this high point in the season, all the hard work has been done – now it is all about show.

But that perception turned out to be not quite correct. Certainly posing is a central part of the proceedings. But several categories in the Fitness class, and also the Mixed Pairs event, involved intricate dance routines that were athletic to the point of gymnastics, and generally very well accomplished.

This is one element of the package that the IFBB offered to Biarritz, and the wider world, this past weekend.

Meanwhile the indefatigable IFBB President, Rafael Santonja, is working to raise the sport’s profile and widen its links within the sporting world as it aspires towards eventual Olympic inclusion.

One very big chip the IFBB had at the casino was the fact that they are fully signed up with the World Anti-Doping Agency. Given the reluctance, to put it mildly, of some other branches of this activity to do the same thing, this looks like a very serious plus factor in the IFBB’s long-term prospects.

Despite the fact that there was more activity over the weekend than this particular observer had anticipated, the basic truth of the fitness and bodybuilding world, to use a little more casino parlance, is that competition is where you cash in the chips you have earned through hours of aerobic and strength work in the gym.

I had a particular interest in the Women’s Body Fitness Up to 158cm class – no sniggering at the back, please – as it involved Namibia’s only female contestant, Alethea Borman. The previous night I had shared a cab to the hotel from the rainswept city centre with Alethea’s husband Theo, who was here to watch and support her.

Talking to Theo offered a view of the drive which, I guess, has propelled all those who fetched up for these annual Championships.

Theol told me that his wife was a lawyer who fitted in her training, every single day without exception, by getting up at 04.30. Siimple!

“She will start by doing an hour’s work on the treadmill, and then she will lift some weights,” Theo said. “She does this every day.”

Alethea competed earlier this year in one of the Arnold Classic events – named after the IFBB’s most famous alumni, Arnold Schwarzenegger. But this was the peak of the season’s competition for her. She didn’t make the final. But she did get specially introduced to the auditorium the following day, celebrated as the first Namibian to take part in the World Championshps. Theo, standing alongside her, was announced as the Namibian delegate – which was broadly true, I suppose.

There were three people in that cab from Biarritz city centre. The third was Susan Grant, whose daughter Sarah was representing Ireland in the Women’s Body Fitness  Over 168cm category.

Again, she presented a picture of a driven individual.

This was only the third event in which this tall Irish girl – who works full-time as a financial controller – has competed.

She started off in this year’s Irish Championships, and did so well there that she went on to the European Championships, where she finished fifth.

Sarah was originally in the Bikini Fitness section, but her wide shoulders meant she was more suited to Body Fitness.

“She did a lot of swimming when she was young,” said Susan. “She is completely dedicated to competing now – it’s a huge part of her life. She has to get up at 04.30 in order to do her training before she goes to work.”

The competitive – and emotional – finale of the first day involved a 35-year-old mother-of-three from Kosovo - Gentiana Beqa  - who did the fitness and body building equivalent of winning a grand slam as she added overall victory in the Wellness Fitness category to the individual weight category gold she had claimed earlier.

Beqa struggled to hold back tears after rounding off a superb first year in the sport by adding two gold medals to the Arnold Classic and European titles she has already won. She runs a gym in the Kosovo capital of Pristina along with her husband, Dreni, who looked ready to burst with pride in the aftermath of her success.

 “I was confident in my abilities, but the world is a big place with many bigger nations,” she told me.

 “I feel very proud for what I have been able to do here for my country.”

All in all, I admit, it was a more complex and interesting weekend than I had anticipated…