The cycle paths on the cape pass through dense pine forest.
The trees on the Atlantic side, under the action of the powerful west wind, all
lean back at the same slight angle, like neat italic handwriting inscribed on
the powder-blue notepaper of the sky. I pedaled off in search of a coastal spot
called Le Truc Vert, just because the name intrigued me: “the green thing”. I
abandoned my bike when the pathway got too soft and sandy, and walked the last
quarter of a mile to the ocean. There was nothing green to be seen, not even
the ocean, which was grey, hoary and ragged, like the gnarled shell of an
oyster. The swell looked dangerous to me, but was clearly a paradise for
surfers, who were barreling landward by the dozen.
The Atlantic
beaches are popular with surfers;
A villa in
Arcachon’s ville d’hiver;
Chez Hortense in
Cap Ferret, which has been serving seafood since the 1920s.
The sand beneath my feet, which had been as hot and yielding
as fresh-baked at the landward side, grew firmer and colder as I approached the
water. At the sea’s edge, the sun was reflected in the saturated sand like a
carelessly dropped doubloon. I stopped to look around me. The roar of the waves
was unceasing; they were rolling in as if from an industrial production line.
The noise had a strange isolating effect: although I could see other people on
the vast expanse of sound, some of them quite close by, I could hear nothing
but the ocean. Stranger still was the fact that the wind and the waves had
somehow conspired to create a chilly, savoury mist I could taste on my tongue.
It lent a bleached-out, soft focus to the surroundings, like the dream sequence
in a film. In the middle distance, the sea mist cloaked the beach in blurry
darkness, though the sun was still high in the sky. It was as if a cold night
were loitering with intent to mug the bright, balmy afternoon. It seemed to me
that only I could see this strange phenomenon, and it could have felt deeply
sinister, but it was in fact beguiling, hypnotic. It added up to the oddest and
most memorable quarter of an hour I have ever spent beside the sea.
Clockwise from top
left: tarts at Le Bistrot du Bassin; the village of L’Herbe; oyster catch of
the day; Arcachon’s ville d’été or summer town; Chez Boulan’s speciality; a
pine forest near L’Herbe; Le Bistrot serves 30 desserts daily; Plange de
I’Horizon at dusk. Centre, the lagoon at low tide
Cap Ferret – Break
for the seaside
Getting there
EasyJet (www.easyjet.com)
flies from several UK airports to Bordeaux. Cap Ferret is then an hour’s drive.
Eurostar (www.eurostar.com)
has a regular service from London to Paris, from where a train to Bordeaux
takes three and a half hours.
Where to stay
La Maison du Bassin (00 33 5 56 60 60 63; www.lamaisondubassin.com) is a tiny
hotel with immense panache in Cap Ferret. Doubles from $210.
La Maison du
Bassin
Also in the town is Cote Sable (00 33 5 57 17 07 27, www.cotesable,fr), a stylish, modern hotel
and spa with views of the bay. Doubles from $293
Where to eat
Le Bistrot du Bassin (00 33 5 56 03 72 46) offers indoor and
outdoor dining at La Maison du Bassin. Be sure to book a table in advance.
Dinner for two from $90.
Le Bistrot du
Bassin
Reservations are also necessary at Chez Hortense (00 33 5 56
60 62 56); ask for a table with a view across the bay to the Dune du Pilat.
Dinner for two from $120. L’Escale (00 33 5 56 60 68 17; www.lescale-restaurant.com) and
Pinasses Café (00 33 5 56 03 77 87; www.pinassecafe.com)
are two establishments jointed together – you walk through one to reach the
other – beside the jetty in Cap Ferret. L’Escale has the slight edge, and so is
always marginally busier. Dinner for two from $90 at both. Chez Boulan (00 33 5
56 60 77 32) is an authentic oyster restaurant on the southern side of town.
Dinner for two from $120.
Where to drink
Au Bureau (00 33 5 56 83 22 21) is a pleasant café-bar in
Arcachon’s ville d’été.
Au Bureau
The bar at L’Hôtel de la Plage (00 33 5 56 60 50 15) in
L’Herbe is a locals’ haunt in one of the cape’s prettiest villages.
Le Mirador (00 33 5 56 60 64 19) is a decent café-restaurant
at the end of the cape.
What to do
Visit the market in Arcachon (open Tuesday to Sunday) and
buy ingredients for a beach picnic. Hire a bicycle; there are lots of cycle
routes, and the villages are worth exploring.
Locabeach (www.locabeach.com)
is a good bike-hire shop with several locations. Take a boat trip to Ile aux
Oiseaux (www.bassin-arcachon-info.com),
where you can see the cabanes tchanquées up close.
Weather to go
From May to July when the average daytime temperature is
23°C
