Avenue Louis Gaume, Gironde
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Pilat comes from an old Gascon word for a heap. It is the sort of name locals give something enormous, presumably to stop it getting ideas. The heap in question is Europe's tallest dune, a hundred metres of sand above the mouth of the Bassin d'Arcachon, and it has ideas anyway. Every year it wanders a few metres inland, and the pine forest, having no say in the matter, steps aside.
At its foot sits La Co(o)rniche, a hunting lodge from the 1930s in neo-Basque dress. What exactly was hunted here is unclear; these days the quarry is a table at sunset. William Techoueyres revived the place with Philippe Starck, who left the Basque house alone and turned the rest into a sort of oyster shed with the walls taken off. Starck called the setting a natural theatre of gigantic proportions. For a man not known for understatement, that was an understatement.
The stage is the mouth of the Bassin. In the middle sits the Banc d'Arguin, a cluster of sand islands let out exclusively to seabirds. Cap Ferret handles the scenery across the water. The dune behind the hotel is the upper balcony, where on summer evenings thousands of people climb a hundred metres of sand to watch the show for free, and arrive too out of breath to enjoy the first act.
The hotel, sensibly, kept the boxes for itself. Most of the rooms are pine cabins modelled on the huts of the local oyster farmers. That sounds like a humble brief for a hotel room, until the door swings open and the Bassin is right there. Luxury, here, comes barefoot. Shoes are allowed, merely pointless.
The performance begins at sunset, and nobody needs a programme. Seafood platters from a house now run by Thomas, William's son, land on the terrace, the sky over Cap Ferret takes its time burning down, and the sandbanks glow like embers. Then the coloured lanterns come on, a DJ steps up, and the evening switches genre from nature documentary to beach party without anyone asking for their money back.
The hotel is refreshingly frank about the consequences. Its own website warns that the rooms can be very noisy when the outdoor bar stays open late, which in July and August means every night. Few hotels put that in writing. Light sleepers have been warned. Everyone else, the sort who believes a sunset improves with a bassline, has been invited.
The balcony, meanwhile, is quietly leaving. Every year the dune shuffles a few metres further inland, away from the water and, it has to be said, the music. Scientists, being scientists, blame the wind. After ninety summers of encores, it may simply want an early night.
1930, La Corniche
The house was built for Pilat-Plage, the district Louis Gaume developed on the living dune; the avenue that runs past the hotel still carries his name.
The main house is the 1930s lodge, in the neo-Basque style of the Bassin d'Arcachon, with half-timbering, arched openings and a wooden balcony. Starck left its lobby as it was, dark wood and period frescoes included. Upstairs are ten doubles and the 60 m² Junior Suite; the shop, La Boutique du Pyla, sits in the reception.
The cabins stand among the pines above the house, built after the huts of the Bassin's oyster farmers. Each is a 45 m² junior suite with sofas, leather armchairs and a terrace behind glass doors. The Bassin categories look into the Bassin d'Arcachon towards Cap Ferret; Bassin + is the same view from the second floor.
The restaurant's terrace runs along the slope under white parasols, with the dune rising on one side and the Banc d'Arguin and Cap Ferret ahead. Seafood platters lead the menu, with starters and dishes chosen at the market, desserts from two pastry chefs and over 500 wines. Lunch and dinner are served every day, by booking only.
The outdoor bar has its own terrace, pushed as close to the dune as the site allows. At sunset coloured lanterns light up over the tables and a DJ plays late into the night. The menu runs from cocktails and champagne to tapas and seafood platters; there are no table bookings, and the crowd mixes residents, guests and oyster farmers.
At a glance
Where
46 avenue Louis Gaume, 33115 Pyla-sur-Mer (La Teste-de-Buch), Gironde; on the flank of the Dune du Pilat, facing the Banc d'Arguin, the mouth of the Bassin d'Arcachon and Cap Ferret; Ha(a)ïtza 600 m; Arcachon / La Teste station 9 km; Bordeaux-Mérignac airport 65 km
Why this one
Facing the Banc d'Arguin and Cap Ferret.
Eighteen 45 m² junior suites in the pines.
A 1930s Basque lodge left intact.
The Edit Notes
The two kinds of room are not variations on one theme. The neo-Basque main house keeps its original lobby with dark wood and period frescoes; its ten doubles run from 25 to 35 m², with carpets Starck designed after Victor Hugo, and only some face the ocean head-on. The 18 cabins above, in the pines, are all 45 m² junior suites with a view across the water. A couple wanting the old house books inside it; anyone after the panorama books a cabin.
Each cabin category is named after what it looks at. Dune faces the Cap Ferret headland and the Banc d'Arguin; Océan looks out to the ocean and the sandbanks; Bassin looks into the Bassin d'Arcachon towards Cap Ferret. A '+' means the second floor rather than the first. All cabins take an XL king-size bed and two singles, so a family of four fits, but the view comes with the name, not with the room number.
The hotel states plainly, on its French pages, that rooms are very noisy while the outdoor bar is open, with a DJ playing late into the night. Two official pages give slightly different calendars, but both agree on every night in July and August and weekends and public holidays in spring and autumn. Light sleepers should come midweek outside high summer, or in winter, when the bar's festive season is over; in August there is no quiet room.
The restaurant takes bookings and the outdoor bar does not, so the two sunsets work differently. A table on the restaurant terrace, with the seafood platters and the 500-reference wine list, has to be reserved, and on summer evenings it is the only seat guaranteed to face the Banc d'Arguin. The bar, with tapas and its own seafood, fills on a first-come basis, with locals and visitors who drive up for the evening as well as guests.
The price question
The money buys a front-row seat on the mouth of the Bassin: a room facing the Banc d'Arguin and Cap Ferret, a terrace below the dune, and a cabin where the view starts at the bed. It does not buy calm in season, a spa on the premises or seclusion, since the bar and terrace are open to anyone who drives up. The real comparison is a view against a night's sleep.
Book it for two or three nights in a cabin, built around one booked dinner on the terrace and evenings that end late. A light sleeper in August, or someone after a spa retreat, is better placed elsewhere or in the quieter months.
Ha(a)ïtza, Pyla-sur-Mer
The same family's 1930 neo-Basque hotel on a Pyla street corner, 600 metres away: 38 rooms, suites and an apartment, a pastry shop, brasserie and bar, a covered pool and the spa.
Les Sources de Caudalie
Sixty-two rooms and suites in six houses among the vines of Château Smith Haut Lafitte at Martillac, about twenty minutes by car south of Bordeaux.
The Extra Edit
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