Domaine de Rochevilaine

Most people who fall for a stretch of coast build a house on it. Henri Dresch, an engineer from Alsace, brought his ready-made. In the 1950s he bought the windswept Pointe de Pen Lan, where the Vilaine meets the Atlantic, and had two old manor houses taken down inland and rebuilt here stone by stone. Guests still arrive through a carved thirteenth-century porch he brought along too, known as the Portail de la Vérité. It may be the most ambitious house move in Brittany.

The result is a hamlet of granite houses at the very end of a little road, with some three hundred metres of rocky shore to itself. One building belonged to the headland all along: an old coastguard post from the days of English raids, with a round tower that once kept the gunpowder dry. It now keeps the wine, a change of contents nobody has complained about. Since the late nineties the domaine has been in the hands of the Jaquet family, and today Cécile Nouail-Jaquet runs it while her husband, Maxime Nouail, runs the kitchen.

The thirty-five or so rooms and suites are scattered across the hamlet, with calm, contemporary interiors inside the old stone. Most face the sea, though not all, so the view is worth confirming when booking. Some have a private spa bath on the terrace, which turns a sunset into a fairly serious commitment. Because the rooms are spread out, the walk to dinner follows granite lanes with the sea loud on the other side of the wall, and in winter the umbrella becomes part of the dress code.

Dinner is served behind long glass walls above the water, under roof timbers taken from a sixteenth-century church. Maxime Nouail cooks mostly from the sea, and lobster is the dish the house is known for. The cellar sits in the former guardroom. For something simpler, the Bar à Coquillages, opening in April 2027, will lay out oysters and whelks by the dozen, and breakfast can come with oysters too, for anyone who sees no reason to wait until lunch.

The spa is the other great draw. Its heated pool looks straight out at the Atlantic, under a roof that slides open on fine days, and the treatments are named after the weather. In most hotels a storm warning ruins the weekend. At Rochevilaine, Avis de Tempête is a massage, and some regulars book only when the forecast turns rough, to watch the waves break against the rocks from somewhere warm.

The domaine is open all year and made for couples who like their sea views framed by very thick walls. A car is essential, since the road simply stops at the gate, and the shore here is rock rather than sand, with the nearest beaches a few minutes' drive away. Vannes is about half an hour by car, Nantes a little over an hour. Families after a lively beach resort should know that the coastal path is the nearest thing to a main street.

Henri Dresch moved two manor houses to reach the end of this road. Most guests, having arrived, show no desire to move anything at all, least of all themselves.