La Baule

Star of the Côte d'Amour coast and gifted with a breathtaking 5-km (3-mi) beach, La Baule is a fashionable resort town that can make you pay dearly for your coastal frolics. Though it once rivaled Biarritz, today tackiness has replaced sophistication, but you still can't beat that sandy beach, or the lovely, miles-long seafront promenade lined with hotels. Like Le Touquet and Dinard, La Baule is a 19th-century creation, founded in 1879 to make the most of the excellent sandy beaches that extend around the broad, sheltered bay between Pornichet and Le Pouliguen. A pine forest, planted in 1840, keeps the shifting local sand dunes firmly at bay. All in all, this can offer an idyllic stay for those who will enjoy a day on the beach, an afternoon at the shops on Avenue du Général-de-Gaulle and Avenue Louis-Lajarrige, and an evening at the casino.