Château de Brindos
Combine Jazz Age glamour, Renaissance stonework, the most luxe of guest rooms (including the ultra-private houseboat-style floating lodges on the hotel's own lake), and fine dining, and you have this Pays Basque Xanadu—a large, rambling, white-stone manor topped with a Spanish belvedere tower set 4 km (2½ miles) east of Biarritz in Anglet. This was originally the home of Sir Reginald Wright, a host-with-the-most, whose great soirées held here in the 1920s and '30s are conjured up in the main salon. In recent years, interiors have been lovingly restored by Serge Blanco, who has managed to honor the mansion's history while installing state-of-the-art technology and comfort. In summer, dine out under the willows at the edge of the water at the grand restaurant.