French Seaside Style

It’s an invitation to bring your travel memories home, infusing it with light and serenity. France is a country of two coastlines, caught between the tantalizing embrace of the ocean – the stormy Atlantic seaboard with its towering cliffs, windswept beaches, and pounding surf – and the sea, the tideless, azure calm of the Mediterranean, basking in the southern sun beyond the terracotta roof tiles and green-black umbrella pines of the Côte d’Azur.

Those diverse sundrenched waters bring travelers back year after year to their favorite seaside retreat: a granite longère on the coast of Brittany, a time-honored hotel on the Bassin d’Arcachon, a Provençal hideaway so near, yet so far, from the madding crowds of Saint-Tropez, an island cottage buffeted by the wind and waves. France has its share of adventurers and mariners, explorers and shipwrecked sailors: romantic images of the sea fueled by the rapturous visions of poets and painters alike.

But for many, the sea is a way of life – from the ships’ captains of yore, returning home to the Breton seaports, to today’s Finistère fishermen, or championship yacht crews training at La Trinité. For many more, the sea is a source of smaller pleasures – childhood holidays, sandcastles, collecting mussels and whelks for supper. Memories to treasure – in collections of scallop shells or driftwood, starfish, or oddly shaped pebbles picked up in quiet creeks along coastal footpaths (the old sentiers des douaniers, once used by customs officials in hot pursuit of smugglers), the essence of the sea is captured in a jar piled high with gleaming shards of mother-of-pearl, a cloche protecting the fragile tracery of a dried sea fan, or a ship-in-a-bottle. Once displayed in the corner of a room, these objects can fill an entire house with their maritime aura.

The colors of the sea too – pale sky blue or soft gray, bright white, vibrant primaries or delicate washes, accent walls and furniture painted and repainted like the hull of a boat. Whoever visits the sea feels the urge to bring it home – every interior is an island, a snug cabin, a much-loved ship ready to set sail on the high seas of the imagination.

For a garden, the sea

Marie-Claude and Alain Pelé

UNE CHAMBRE D’HÔTES À DAHOUËT

Guesthouse 11 chemin du Bignon, 22370 Pléneuf-Val-André, www.unechambredhotes.canalblog.com + 33 2 96 72 88 93

A private house, sheltered (say the locals) by the fabled microclimate of the Baie de Saint-Brieuc, on Brittany’s north coast. A place for family vacations, where generations meet for the long summer break. Sailing school, rock-pooling for shellfish, catching lobsters in pots, tennis tournaments, a round of golf, hikes along the coastal path (the Sentier des Douaniers), high tides, and crumbling sandcastles. Marie-Claude and Alain have created the perfect family vacation house, and their own seaside home. With its clapboard façade and English-style bay and sash windows, wooden verandah, and balconies inspired by the architecture of the region’s grand seaside villas, the building is flooded with natural light. The broad terrace, sheltered from the prevailing wind (and prying eyes), is a relaxing haven in all weathers. A place where guests are content to while away the hours, dreaming that maybe one day, they could live nearby.

In good company

Françoise and Michel Busson-Wagner

LA SEIGNEURIE

Guesthouse 35114 Saint-Benoît-des-Ondes www.la-seigneurie-des-ondes.net + 33 2 99 58 62 96

Just getting here is a joy in itself. As the last stop on the pilgrimage to the bay of Mont St-Michel, La Seigneurie stands serenely behind high granite walls. Built in the twelfth century, the original house has been extended, transformed, demolished, and reconstructed over the centuries. The setting is a haven of charm, and its history is fascinating, too – Françoise and Michel have breathed new life into the house, inherited from a long line of corsairs and shipbuilders from nearby Saint-Malo. Far from submitting to the immutable heritage of its massive stone walls, Françoise – a former antiques dealer – has tackled it head-on, with taste, flair, due respect and a dose of tough love. A passionate collector of 18th-century decorative arts, she has thrown herself into creating a comfortable, contemporary interior. The woodwork and walls (in and out) are often repainted with fresh colors; and a new bedroom added, in the gardener’s annex.

This article is taken from French Seaside Style by Sébastien Siraudeau. Flammarion, 2013.

About the Author
Sébastien Siraudeau’s photographs appear regularly in home-decoration magazines. He has published several works on travel and lifestyle in France, including Vintage French Interiors (2008), French Style at Home (2009), and French Country Style at Home (2010), all published by Flammarion.

Originally published in the June-July 2013 issue of France Today.