Seaside France from Normandy to Nice, the French Keep the Best Coastal Bits to Themselves
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magazine TotalGuide Seaside France From Normandy to Nice, the French keep the best coastal bits to themselves. Time to join them... Page 60 We’ve no reservations about these great hotels… Page 64 Northern lite — an easy short break in Brittany Page 68 Seafood and eat it! A gourmet break on Ile de Ré CANNES-DO ATTITUDE ES G A M I L W A 72 Floats our boat: the photo-perfect PHOTOGRAPH: Vieux Port in Cannes TotalGuide I Seaside France Voulez-vous… visit that Mont, e do like to be beside the without the crowds? Must do Mont-Saint-Michel (pictured)? seaside — but especially in From spring through to autumn, the France. Lazy afternoons only way to guarantee solitude is to stay overnight — that way you can join on the beach? Oui. Oyster a free, atmospheric 7am mass at the spectacular hilltop Abbey before the platters by the promenade? day-visitor hordes descend. (Try cosy Oui. Wild walks by roaring surf? Mais oui. Auberge Saint-Pierre; auberge-saint- W pierre.fr; doubles from £191, room only). Our Gallic neighbour has got the lot — and Otherwise, arrive as early as you can (check ot-montsaintmichel.com first more. Better yet, there’s still plenty of as access is occasionally limited by high tides) and bring a packed picnic undiscovered bits. Read on for our pick lunch to munch on the lawn of the of the French coast’s best secret spots tucked-away Jardins Sainte-Catherine — the main-street restaurants, — we even have new ways to see the old particularly the famed omelette- maker La Mère Poulard, are overpriced favourites. Alors, on y va? (typically about £30pp). 54 SUNDAY TIMES TRAVEL AUGUST 2017 AUGUST 2017 SUNDAY TIMES TRAVEL 55 TotalGuide I Seaside France Voulez-vous… take a hike along paradise to themselves. Stick to the the wild coast? jagged northwest coast for windswept Go to: Belle-Ile-en-Mer, Brittany coastal romps around steep ravines In the waters off the tip of the spindly and sea-sprayed cliffs. The south Quiberon peninsula, Belle-Ile-en-Mer is a gentle, beach-lover’s haven is — as its name suggests — quite a — a whole other kind of belle. beauty. But the Bretons don’t like to Or try: The wild, windy coast of the tell anyone about it (let alone boast Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy about it), preferring to keep this walking at Barneville-Carteret. Voulez-vous… soak up some medieval history? Go to: Saint-Malo, Brittany Ramparts encircle cobbled streets and creaky old ‘corsair’ houses; a castle looks out to rocky, off-shore military forts — never mind that Saint-Malo was almost fully rebuilt after World War II, it’s still as throwback-atmospheric as you could wish. Scoff a nutty Brittany crêpe with salty butter at Breizh Café (breizhcafe.com; mains about £10), and at low tide walk along the beaches to the stony defensive forts. Stay at Hôtel Beaufort, where you’ll get full-frontal views of the sea from just £68, room local’s only (hotel-beaufort.com). secrets Or try: La Rochelle has turreted ‘Want to catch some medieval towers grand enough awesome surf? My to satisfy avid history geeks. buddies and I head to Bidart’s Plage des 100 Marches, a little-known surfing paradise in a spectacular wild setting on the Basque Coast. Get there by taking the 400m path down the cliffs from Rue Tutilenia — but check tide times first (windguru.com). The incoming half-tide Voulez-vous… an arty break? is best for surfing, Go to: Le Havre, Normandy because at full For most arrivals it’s just a ferry port. tide the beach Dig deeper and you’ll discover some is completely submerged.’ head-turning mid-century buildings. Thomas Briand, Flattened at the end of World War II, Le metalshop foreman, Havre was rebuilt by visionary architect Bassussarry, Côte Auguste Perret, whose talent with Basque concrete created Lego-like apartments and kaleidoscopic Saint Joseph’s church tower, giving Le Havre an otherworldly aura. Diary date: from September 9 to October 9, in celebration of the city’s 500th anniversary, Monet’s dreamy vision of the city, Impression, Sunrise, is exhibited (September 9-October 8) at the Modern Art Museum (mum- lehavre.fr; £8.60; pictured). Or try: Montpellier’s Musée Fabre (mus eefabre.montpellier3m.fr; £6) is home to one of France’s best fine art collections. 56 SUNDAY TIMES TRAVEL AUGUST 2017 AUGUST 2017 SUNDAY TIMES TRAVEL 57 TotalGuide I Seaside France with original paintings, we have an early lunch of on to the sleepy frontier town of Cerbère and then piquant paella and Catalan lamb before an ice cream turn around at the border, simultaneously bidding The great waterfront road trip: on the waterfront. Collioure’s pink-stone church tower Holà and Adios to Spain. and jumble of fishing boats beg for further exploration, Just before we reach Banyuls again, the late afternoon but we have to leave the petite town behind, and make sun beckons us to the water and, at Paulilles, we wander our break for the border. through a curious visitor complex set in an old dynamite Our plan is to weave southwards along the empty local’s factory. There’s a workshop for building traditional coast road, stopping where the urge takes us (not barque boats, and a landscaped garden, but the jewel Deep south necessarily for roadside wine consumption). The secrets among the attractions is its beach, a half-moon of silver a quieter place to clock up some kilometres. Named seafront at Banyuls-sur-Mer, with its blue-shuttered ‘For the best seafood shingle curling around an idyllic bay. Way down on the Spanish border, on the French the Côte Vermeille thanks to its red soil, the route from houses, palm trees and pines, is the first place to draw Luckily, our dinner reservation isn’t far. Les Clos de the Pyrénées-Orientales has views, Catalan Coast, head Collioure town down to Cerbère on the Spanish border us in. We stroll along the harbour admiring more to Poissonnerie in Paulilles winery is one of the best in the area, and its vineyards and gloriously empty snakes along a coastline hiding pretty rocky coves rainbow-splashed fishing boats as they bob in the Port-Vendres. You restaurant La Table d’Aimé (latabledaime.com; two- and shingly shores, and passes terracotta-roofed water, then soak up the afternoon sun on the terrace get fresh oysters, course menu £20), enveloped by vines and set under roads, says Carolyn Boyd towns, their choppy harbours filled with brightly of Le Pressoir (Place Paul Reig; mains about £15), shrimps and mussels fragrant pine trees, is something of a local favourite. wouldn’t usually drink on a roadside at 3pm, but painted fishing boats. sipping Oranginas, looking out to sea. with local wines, all I tuck into freshly caught fish accompanied by the having stopped at this spectacular lookout point where Our day begins in Collioure, where a quick jaunt It was just beyond Banyuls that we hit the served by the house’s best wines, and my long-suffering driver looks fishermen a wine vendor sits lonely in his cabin, a celebratory around its bustling market has us perusing stalls of spectacularly situated Cave Tambour wine booth on enviously. Banyuls’s speciality is a sweet dessert wine, themselves! It’s tipple seems justified. Sipping my drink, I gaze across bright pottery and juicy olives while a jazz band strums, (domaine-tambour.com) — and made our unscheduled I amazing value, too: so we buy a bottle for later, for his sake. Once back on our the sinuous road that loops along the Roussillon (formerly bangs and hops in the background. With the plane trees boozy stop. After I’d greedily drained my glass, we balcony at Le Relais des Trois Mas (relaisdestroismas.com; Quay to the castle: a seafood platter for Languedoc-Roussillon) coast and into Spain. Breathing in the pretty town of towering above, pastel-hued buildings and galleries all decide to follow the road’s most spectacular stretch, two costs from £50.’ doubles from £86, room only), we pop the cork and sip fresh sea air, I admire my fragrant red, as my designated- Collioure on the Côte around, it could almost be Saint-Tropez, but Collioure looping past bushy vineyards and pastel villages. Gorse Dany Chouet, chef, from hotel tumblers, overlooking the twinkling lights driver husband admires the swathes of vineyards Vermeille; right, is infused with Catalan culture making it way cooler bushes dense with yellow flowers line the route, but it’s Saint-Martin-de- of Collioure, toasting France’s secret road trip. aerial view of Cap clinging to the headlands that jut into the sea. — and, even in summer, much better value. the coastline that draws my eyes at each turn; the view, Villeréal, Lot-et- Cerbère;fine wining Garonne While the curves of the Côte d’Azur attract more and dining at Clos de At restaurant Hôtel des Templiers (hotel-templiers.com; of countless headlands and a light blue sky strewn l Way to go: See en.destinationsuddefrance.com road-trippers, this other end of the Med coast offers Paulilles; Collioure three courses from £15), where the walls are crammed with cotton-wool clouds, is breathtaking. We head and Factfile, page 82. WALTER BIBIKOW/AWL-IMAGES, ALAMY BIBIKOW/AWL-IMAGES, WALTER PHOTOGRAPHS: PHOTOGRAPHS: 58 SUNDAY TIMES TRAVEL AUGUST 2017 AUGUST 2017 SUNDAY TIMES TRAVEL 59 TotalGuide I Seaside France Stay the course: opposite, Hotel Ha(a)ïtza. This page, clockwise from top left, Le Landemer; Maisons Marines d’Huchet; Hôtel des Pêcheurs; Castelbrac The spa one: Castel Clara, Belle-Ile- The romantic one: Le Landemer, The no-need-to-leave one: The homely one: Lodge Kerisper, The brilliant-value one: Hostellerie a glam mid-century-modern hideaway.