Hotel de la Plage

The best generational combination for a visit to Hotel de la Plage would be parents (or more likely grandparents) old enough to have fond memories of seeing the Hulot movie in their youth, and children of the right age to enjoy the simple pleasures of the beach and its adjacent rock-pools. Any time of year is wonderful, but the best time to recapture the spirit Tati discovered, would be July or August when French city dwellers decamp for their annual ritual of a few weeks at the seaside. Here’s how your typical day might unfold …

After a relaxed night in your comfortable, stylishly decorated and well-appointed room, you descend to a splendid breakfast buffet offering a wide assortment of cereals, fruits and pastries, all to waken your appetite and prepare you for many busy hours to come. Then you step directly from the hotel’s terrace onto the south-facing beach, children eagerly clutching buckets and spades, the adults armed with deckchairs, parasols and the day’s newspapers. Having established your territory just above the high tide line you soak in the sun, taking in the headlines, watching the children scurrying back and forth between water and shore, participating in the creation of ambitious castles and exotic sea creatures carved in the sand.

After an hour or two of this, punctuated perhaps by a coffee or two back on the hotel terrace, it’s time for a little local exploration. You’ll probably start by taking a closer look at the statue which has been in a corner of your eye all morning, attracting a lot of attention and camera lenses. Erected on the sea wall, it is a fine bronze reproduction of Jacques Tati as M Hulot, leaning forward eagerly to survey his favourite beach. Turning back into the attractive village of Saint-Marc and strolling past the small shops and through the street market, the produce displayed by local farmers and fishermen stirs your appetite and reminds you that the lunch hour approaches. Back then to Hotel de la Plage to claim your table on the terrace, looking out over beach and sea but with plentiful sunshades to fend off the midday heat. A glass of sparkling wine will help cool you further as you peruse the imaginative menu. Mindful that a full afternoon’s activities still await, you may be tempted by a light but delicious salad, whilst the younger generation will appreciate the wide choice offered on the children’s menu, particularly the pizzas and ice-creams. After coffee, time to move a few feet from table to sun lounger and finish the papers or maybe even take a short nap.

Fortified in body and mind, you face more difficult choices: back to the beach for another dose of sun and sand or more energetic water-based activities available nearby such as jet ski, fishing and diving. Or you may elect to take a walk along the coast, following the centuries old Chemin des Douaniers. However you spend the afternoon, though, be sure to leave plenty of time to freshen up and change by cocktail hour. Back on the terrace, but now with a gentler sun dipping down over La Pointe de Chémoulin which marks the limits of the Loire estuary and the beginning of the Atlantic Ocean, you indulge in another glass or two and some relaxed conversation with your fellow guests before a well-earned treat in the restaurant Hulot Plage.

Here Christelle and Philippe Le Saint preside over the kitchen and dining room and pride themselves on their market-based menu. Seafood and meats featured in traditional French dishes are complemented by surprising and enticing offerings from Italy and Asia. Fish lovers will be entranced by the Dorade Royale (sea bream), a locally caught fish prepared with red basilic. Those preferring red meat might go for the excellent Souris d’Agneau (lamb shank braised with honey, thyme and lemon). Whatever you choose you will find just the right wine to go with it: you could select a light local grape from the Loire region or range further afield with more robust offerings from Burgundy or Bordeaux. And to top off their meal, for dyed-in-the-wool Hulot fans one choice will leap from the extensive desert menu: le Délice de Tati, a combination of red fruit crumble, chocolate mousse, lemon meringue pie and profiteroles. After this you will surely sleep well and be ready for another day of beach or exploration courtesy of the unique Hotel de la Plage.