Regardless of its density of storybook cities, worldwide vacationers have lengthy relied on a circuit of tried-and-true favorites in France: Paris, Bordeaux, and the Côte d’Azur.
The next 4 areas aren’t any secret; the French, and a few sensible Brits, have lengthy understood their attraction. However they’ve largely escaped worldwide consideration past that, leaving them blissfully freed from crowds. With new five-star accommodations and prepare routes bettering accessibility, that will not be the case for lengthy. Guide now, earlier than your mates catch on.
The Cote d’Azur Different
Arcachon, an hour from Bordeaux, has been referred to as the Hamptons of France—rich, preppy, beachy. And if that’s true, then Cap Ferret is the Montauk.
The chicest place to remain there’s Hôtel des Dunes, which reopened in 2023. Proprietor Karine Tiphagne purchased the 1969 lodge, located subsequent to Cap Ferret’s well-known lighthouse, and refurbished it within the effortlessly laid-back type of a few of her favourite seashore communities world wide: Montauk, sure, and likewise Southern California and Hawaii’s Waimea Bay. Tiphagne calls the vibes “swank-free.”
“I remember an American client arriving last year, excitedly telling me that we reminded her of the Surf Lodge Montauk 10 years ago when it was still a calm, cool, authentic and laid-back place,” Tiphagne says. To wit, its 11 rooms and two suites have cheery yellow-and-white tile wainscoting and are steps from breezy, swinging hammocks and a footpath main all the way down to the seashore.
It’s the perfect perch from which to find the native seashores. Cap Ferret is about on a peninsula with a windswept oceanside—good for kitesurfing—and a quieter lagoon facet that’s protected by dunes and the forest, perfect for crusing. The lodge’s cooks can pack picnic baskets earlier than you decamp for both one, or you’ll be able to take a flat-bottomed pinnace boat to native oyster-farming villages—the captains serve bivalves and wine proper on board.
For breakfast, bypass the lodge’s beneficiant unfold and head as a substitute to Maison Frédélian. The long-lasting bakery and pastry store can also be recent off a renovation—however the unimaginable waffles and cannelés are the identical ones they’ve been serving since 1939.
The B Facet of Provence
Some 135 miles from the purple-hued lavender fields of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence is a panorama awash in rosy tones: the UNESCO-designated saline wetlands of the Camargue, house to legions of pink flamingos and wild white horses.
Till now, you’d go to as a day journey from close by areas. Montpellier and Marseilles are each an hour away, and Arles, house to the spectacular Luma basis—with a shimmering Frank Gehry-designed tower that wrapped building in 2021—is even nearer. However this June introduced the world’s first luxurious lodge: Les Bains Gardians, the sister property of the horny five-star Les Bains Paris, courtesy of proprietor and former filmmaker Jean-Pierre Marois.
The 48 rooms are all in standalone straw-roofed cottages historically referred to as cabanes de gardians, or cowboy cabins. They’re outfitted with vintage furnishings, gauzy mosquito netting and the identical black-and-white checkerboard blankets utilized by the precise gardians that lend the lodge its identify.
Horses determine closely into the programming: Ten (tame!) horses stay within the onsite stables. You may go using on the world’s distant seashores, or in a horse-drawn carriage via the small fishing village of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. Horse remedy lessons are additionally a part of the in depth wellness program—which additionally features a hamman, sauna and whirlpool baths. (A extra correct spa will come subsequent summer time.) And in a nod to the opposite native animal, the lodge’s ’70s-style pool overlooks a flamingo-filled pond.
Lengthen the animal theme by witnessing one of many Camargue’s well-known bullfights, the place there aren’t any matadors and the bulls aren’t killed. As a substitute it’s a contest of agility; males wearing white try to seize a ribbon or tassel from between the bull’s horns in one of many many native amphitheaters, for tons of and even 1000’s of onlookers.
The Alpine Sleeper Hit
Vincent Gombault, co-owner of the small however luxurious lodge group Almae Assortment, grew up snowboarding in Saint-Nicholas de Véroce, a sleepy, pastoral village within the Mont Blanc ski area, 40 minutes from Chamonix. So it was a pure setting for the gathering’s marquee lodge, Armancette, which opened for its first full yr in 2022. The chalet retains tons of historic allure—the adjoining bakery has remained unchanged since 1952, and locals nonetheless collect there for his or her morning espresso, croissants and blueberry tarts—however its 17 rooms at the moment are stuffed with luxurious velvet chairs, excessive wood-beamed ceilings and fantastic linens.
From a chairlift that’s 5 minutes from the property, you have got entry to trails that feed into the better Megève and Chamonix ski area; within the summertime, the identical mountains supply a wealth of biking, paragliding and mountain climbing adventures. (Discover by yourself two toes to see a number of the space’s Baroque church buildings; the bakery will fortunately ship you off with a picnic lunch.) Whenever you return, there are indoor-outdoor swimming pools on the spa to assuage drained legs; they’re open year-round.
Consuming right here is half the enjoyable. Alpine cheeses star on the menu at Le Bistrot du Mont Joly, the place the burgers are topped with Reblochon and fondue graces many tabletops on the terrace. And at La Desk d’Armante, chef Fabien Laprée—previously of the Michelin-starred Saisons in Marseille, and a Meilleur Ouvrier de France finalist in 2018—serves an eight-course tasting menu stuffed with Alpine lake trout and domestically grown produce.
Then once more, if upscale eating appeals, you’re solely 90 minutes from Courchevel, the place seemingly each luxurious model—Aman, LVMH, Oetker Assortment—has a six-star resort with equally bold eating. Bonus: Now you can get to the area in excessive type from Paris, because of the in a single day Paris-Moutiers Belmond prepare route that made its debut in December.
Chateau Nation
Image an cute, good French village straight out of Chocolat or Magnificence and the Beast, castles and all. That’s Dordogne in a nutshell, but the area—125 miles east of Bordeaux and 100 miles north of Toulouse—stays underneath the radar, maybe owing to the dearth of luxurious lodging for laypeople.
With two fabulous new properties that opened in 2022, the area has by no means been extra engaging. About an hour’s drive from Bergerac Derdogne Périgord Airport is Domaine de Rochebois, an opulent 40-bedroom chateau on a grand property with a nine-hole golf course, in depth manicured gardens, a brewery and a spa run by Parisian magnificence line Nuxe. Close by within the medieval city of Sarlat-le-Canéda is Le Petit Manoir, a brand new inn in a fifteenth century manor home that’s a part of Alain Ducasse’s Teritoria group. It has simply 9 rooms and suites, all outfitted sumptuously in brocades and thick rugs, plus a surprising courtyard with a pool—however unusually, contemplating Ducasse’s involvement, no restaurant for dinner.
Contemplate {that a} good purpose to get out and discover the neighboring villages—many with equally historic structure and ancient-looking castles. Just a few regal locations embody the imposing thirteenth century Château de Castelnaud and Château Jardins des Milandes in Castelnaud-la-Chapelle. The latter could shock you: It’s the previous house of Joséphine Baker, the enduring American-born entertainer immortalized in Nineteen Twenties silent movies and Parisian Artwork Nouveau posters that also line the citadel’s rooms.
