24 avenue de Maremne, Landes
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In the days of the stagecoach, a relais de poste was where exhausted horses were swapped for fresh ones, and where the passengers, every bit as worn out, were fed and given a bed. The Relais de la Poste in Magescq, on the old road through the pine forests of the Landes towards Spain, was one of those inns, and it still carries the evidence. The old plane trees out front have thick knots where iron rings once held the horses. The inn has kept the purpose and dropped the horses. Travellers still come in weary and go out restored, except that today's guests are in no rush to move on.
The Coussaus have run inns in the Landes for generations, and in 1952 Jean Coussau's parents took over this one, in the family since 1850. Jean took over the kitchen and his brother Jacques the dining room, and now Jacques's daughter, Clémentine, shares the stoves with her uncle. For all that lineage, nothing about the house is stuffy. The mood is cheerfully timeless, with an old pewter counter in the bar where evenings tend to begin.
There are sixteen rooms and suites, most of them facing the park. They are spacious and bright, with Art Deco furniture and balconies over the garden, and some of them connect for families. After hours on the road, a room like this makes the car seem very far away.
Recovery starts outdoors. The estate covers some seven hectares of tall trees and palms, with a small vineyard that produces the house wine, and at its heart lies a large pool. Between swims, the spa offers a sauna, and the gym looks straight out into the trees. When the Atlantic calls, the surf beaches of the Landes are twenty minutes off through the pines.
The real refuelling happens at dinner. The cooking is classic south-western food at its best, and Clémentine is gently adding more vegetables and lightening the sauces without touching the dishes that regulars return for. Warm duck foie gras comes with grapes, spring brings salmon from the Adour and white asparagus from the sandy soils of the Landes, and in autumn, alongside the game, the sole with fresh ceps goes out to table after table. The wine is kept in what were once the stables, and the head sommelier, Bruno Montus, knows every bottle there. Afterwards, the house collection of Armagnac makes a last glass hard to refuse.
Not every traveller needs a change of horses. Followers of culinary fashion will find none here, the restaurant takes two days off each week, and since Magescq lies inland, the ocean means a drive. Evenings are hushed. Lovers of classic French cooking, and travellers heading south who want more than a night's sleep, will find the stop well worth breaking the journey for.
The horses that stopped here were rested and sent on within the hour. The knots in the plane trees remember them. Their successors, the guests, rarely manage to leave so quickly.
On the pilgrims' road
The house began in 1850 as a grocery-inn on one of the routes to Santiago de Compostela, bought by Jean Coussau's great-grandparents; travellers, pilgrims and traders stopped here long before the hotel.
Behind the house the building turns its long, low back to the park: two storeys of balconies above a lawn planted with palms and edged by maritime pines. Deluxe rooms and the suites look this way, and breakfast can be taken on the terrace or in the glazed winter-garden veranda. The pine wood, orchard and family vines lie further into the seven hectares.
The restaurant room was recently renovated from end to end: round tables in white cloths, teal armchairs, warm wood and windows onto the garden. The menu follows the seasons and the Landes producers, with dishes regulars come back for: warm duck foie gras with grapes, Magescq asparagus stuffed with crab, sole with ceps, roast wood pigeon and hare à la royale.
Deluxe rooms measure about forty square metres, with a king-size or twin beds, a sitting corner and a balcony with garden furniture over the park. Each is decorated differently. They take two guests and no extra bed, but connecting rooms can be booked together, and every bathroom has both a bath and a shower.
The heated outdoor pool and its solarium sit in the park among pines and palms. Indoors, the wellness area has a counter-current pool and a whirlpool under a glass wall onto the garden, with a sauna, a hammam, a relaxation room and one treatment room. The fitness room, glazed on all sides, stands among the trees and is kept for hotel guests.
At a glance
Where
24 Avenue de Maremne, 40140 Magescq, Landes; in the pine forest of the Landes, a few kilometres inland from the coast, 15 minutes from Dax; A63 exit 11; Dax station 17 km; Biarritz airport 50 km, Bordeaux airport 130 km; bus stop 200 m
Why this one
Jean Coussau and his niece Clémentine.
Balconies from Deluxe upwards.
Seven hectares, pines and vines.
The Edit Notes
The restaurant is closed every Monday and Tuesday, and the hotel's current notice says the whole house closes on those days too; the Relais & Châteaux listing limits the hotel's closure to September until mid-May. There is also an annual break, from 11 November after lunch until 12 December in 2026. A stay is best planned from Wednesday to Sunday, with dinner booked at the same time as the room.
The house is long and low, with the park behind it. Deluxe rooms, Suites and the larger suites are listed with a garden view and a balcony or terrace. Superior rooms are the exception: they lie either at the front or at the back of the house, and only some have a balcony. For the view of lawn, palms and pines that defines a stay here, ask at booking which side a Superior room is on, or book a Deluxe.
Deluxe rooms take two people at most and no extra bed, but connecting Deluxe rooms are available, which is how a family with older children gets two bathrooms side by side. Junior Suites and Suites take one extra bed, for three in all, at a supplement. The two apartments, with a bedroom, a sitting room and a terrace onto the shaded courtyard, are the other option. The hotel lists itself as family-friendly on its group page.
Magescq lies inland, in the pines. The Moliets golf course and the Courant d'Huchet, the river that winds through dunes to the beach at Moliets, are each about fifteen minutes away by car, and the hotel lists a surf school at Messanges. Dax is fifteen minutes the other way. Without a car, the Dax to Mont-de-Marsan bus stops 200 metres from the door, and the hotel suggests leaving the car and taking the bus to the coast.
The price question
The money buys a family house where the kitchen sets the rhythm: a garden-facing room, a long dinner of south-western classics and a park to recover in the next morning. It does not buy a seaside address, a restaurant open every evening or, out of season, a hotel open every night. The real comparison is a coastal hotel with a dinner here on the way.
Book it for two nights between Wednesday and Sunday, on the way south or as a base for the Landes coast, with both dinners taken at the house. Travellers who need a restaurant open every evening, or a beach within walking distance, are better placed on the coast.
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The Extra Edit
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