Hôtel de la Plage

Cap Ferret is the skinny peninsula between the Bay of Arcachon and the Atlantic Ocean on France’s southwest coast, known, if at all, for La Dune du Pilat, Europe’s highest sand dune. Often confused with glitzier Cap Ferrat along La Côte d'Azur, this low-key beach community long favored by the French bourgeois drew Bordeaux restaurateurs Nicolas Lascombes and Stessy Faber, who faithfully restored an 1860 cream-and-red-lacquered woodworkers’ dormitory turned waterfront inn that reopened last May as Hôtel de la Plage, one of a handful of stylish new establishments pulling back the curtains on this charming coast of tiny oyster farms and broad surf beaches. The dozen cozy, well-priced rooms channel the basin’s candy-colored homes in pumpkin and seafoam, and eschew minibars, televisions, and—in true French fashion—air conditioning, to encourage walks in the pine forest and lingering on the outdoor terrace where the menu platforms southwest France, with veal chops from Périgord, clams from the nearby Saubesty family, and oysters raised by villagers Bart and Marien.