French beach town in late May/early June
 

Hello community! Thanks in advance for your ideas. I am traveling to France in late May/early June and have 10 days to experience French coastal life. I have been to the South of France many times, so would like to get to know another region. My interests are food, wine, and everyday life in a coastal town. Ideally, it would be a town within a shortish train ride to one or two other places of interest.

Would appreciate your experiences and thoughts!

Well for me, I like the stretch of the coast in Languedoc Roussillon are the best on the Mediterranean coast with many lovely places to base particularly in late May-early June. Here is a good article that gives a lot of good info on those https://www.creme-de-languedoc.com/L...ches/index.php

But if you are looking to explore regions on the Atlantic side, in late May early June I would chose the Charente Maritime area over Brittany only because I think the weather will probably be nicer there. If the weather doesn't concern you so much for Brittany I would chose to spend the time in either Dinard or Vannes-they both have enough going on for 10 days and Dinard has a wonderful market.

In Charente Maritime, We have a family home in St Palais sur Mer so of course are biased to that particular village. I have spent over 40 years now there visiting with my French born husband and it is still one of the places where you can go for weeks without hearing any English-although now with the younger generation they certainly understand enough English to "deal with tourists" who don't speak French. But there are many choices north of Bordeaux up to La Rochelle. Do be aware that the May has many 3 day weekends so many French folks will be visiting their beach homes for example so it might end up being more crowded than you think-especially the last weekend of May, so bear that in mind for lodging and train tickets, etc.

Here's a basic guide for the Charente Maritime area.

https://www.guide-charente-maritime....-maritime.html

Another thought that would be very different for you probably than the south of France would be to spend part of your time on Ile de Re and part in La Rochelle. La Rochelle is a fairly large train hub, so you get easily to nearby areas

https://www.holidays-iledere.co.uk/

A vote for Ile de Ré or the one south of there, Archacon?

Normandy/ Brittany may be fine, lots of bays/ Towns. I'm not familiar with train access up there but any of the little towns between Barfleur and Dieppe are pretty nice with Ww2 landing museums down in the bottom left corner. Bayeux of course has the Tapestry.

When you say you've been to "the South of France" with a capital S, I wonder what that means - the Riviera/Côte d'Azur? I am partial to the coast of Languedoc-Roussillon, which of course is also in the south of France. The lovely scenic train that plies that route makes it easy to find a base where you'd have access to plenty of other towns to visit and explore. My favorite area is between Narbonne and Collioure.

I've been to Arcachon (and Pilat and Cap Ferret) a number of times and it's a pleasant area, but transportation options are fewer than along the Med Coast. North from there are a number of attractive beach towns, as jpie has pointed out, all the way up to La Rochelle. I've spent time in Châtellaion Plage and on the Ile d'Oléron (I think that's what bilboburglar was referring to) and enjoyed them both (but was driving so could explore anywhere easily - not sure about trains and buses around there). Also been to La Rochelle many times and Ile de Ré twice. La Rochelle is a nice little city with an appealing port scene, but I wouldn't want to spend 10 days there. Ile de Ré is certainly charming, but very tony and expensive - too posh for my taste for more than a night or two. Ile d'Oléron is definitely its poor cousin.

Dinard is a very pleasant beach town.

We spent time last June in the Dinard/St Malo area and also in Vannes. Our Vannes hosts told us that the water is usually warmer in the sheltered Gulf of Morbihan.
We enjoyed both locations.

Just to throw out another completely different option, on the Atlantic...
The French Basque Coast.

We've spent time on the French Basque Coast for over 20 years every summer, mostly in June, and we enjoy it more then than in very packed July/August.

The area is truly charming and beautiful, oozing with the unique Basque culture. Something very different in culture, language, traditions, architecture and cuisine. The shopping is fantastic and you have many options for truly great dining in all price ranges!
We're big fans of St-Jean-de-Luz. It's a classy place.
The outdoor farmers' market Tuesday and Friday mornings, where the very best purveyors/farmers in the Basque Country sell their wares, brings folks in from all around. The Basque Country offers some of the best dining around on both sides of the border.

While I don't know that you'd want to stay for 10 days, it does offer excursion possibilities by train or bus.

For wine, there's the unique and local Egiategia rosé and white, both aged at the bottom of the bay in adjacent Socoa, and the wines of the Irouléguy A.O.C,. the smallest appellation in France.

It's a stop on the TGV from Paris' Gare Montparnasse, but it's about a 4 hr. 20 min. ride because it's high speed only to Bordeaux.

From there one can take a TER train to pretty Guéthary to explore its beaches or a TER up to much larger and beautiful Biarritz, a haven for the young surfing crowd in the summer, or to Bayonne. Bayonne is a real workaday Basque city that's undergoing a major revitalization/beautification and is the cultural capital of the French Basque Country with a wonderful Basque ethnographic museum. Bayonne is also staging post on the Route to St. James and has a pretty cathedral.
We've used Bayonne, Biarritz and St-Jean-de-Luz as June bases, depending on our budget. St-Jean-de-Luz has many lodging options in all price ranges.

You can explore San Sebastián and Bilbao in the Basque Country of Spain to the south, accessible by Alsa bus.

There are many fans of SJdeL and the French Basque coast here on this forum if you want to do a search for more ideas from others.

<<There are many fans of SJdeL and the French Basque coast here on this forum if you want to do a search for more ideas from others.>>

And we are among them. We're going back, yet again, this May. This time we'll visit Getaria, Ordizia, Tolosa, and Pamplona, I hope, and will stay in Ciboure instead of SJdeL just for something different.

Yeah!
The Ordizia market is on Wednesday, if you're interested (go early though, because street parking is tough--been there, done that!) and the Tolosa market happens on Saturdays. Ciboure's market occurs on Sundays.
Getaria is wonderful any day of the week.
We actually used Tolosa as a 4-night base last summer at the Bide Bide hotel, and we'll use Getaria as a 4-night base this summer, staying at the Gaintza winery hotel.
It's all terrific!

Thanks, Maribel.

We've actually got a week-long trip to Paris coming up later this week, and a passel of guests coming in April, so I'm only now beginning to plot out our May trip. I did note the markets everywhere, as we are market freaks. We won't have a car so we'll be taking ALSA and trains where possible, and we always get to markets early!

We'll be shepherding two newcomers to the area this time around, and yeah, I'm excited!

My preference always goes to Hossegor.

Just to mention that Hossegor is also probably one of the premier surfing spot in France, so it is always fun beach watching in almost any season.

We spent the night last July on our way down from Bordeaux in Soorts-Hossegor in the Landes at a cute and stylish B&B (with a/c!). The village has some pretty Basque architecture. I had always wanted to stop at either Hossegor or Capbreton to see these premier surfing spots.
We enjoyed watching the surfers at the beaches in Hossegor and Capbreton (you can see for miles!).
We had an excellent dinner in Capbreton at a nice bistrot at the Quai de la Pêcherie, "Le Fou a Pieds Rouges".
https://fr-fr.facebook.com/lefouapiedsrouges40/.

While I wouldn't use it as a long term base without a car, it does make for a quite an interesting overnight on the way to the Pays Basque.