On summer weekends, the Bordelais escape en masse to ARCACHON , the oldest resort on the Côte d'Argent and a forty-minute train ride across flat, sandy forest from Bordeaux. The beaches of white sand are magnificent but can be crowded, and its central jetties, Thiers and Eyrac, are busy with boats going off on an array of cruises to places like the Île aux Oiseaux and the Dune de Pyla.

The town itself is a sprawl of villas great and small, the most exclusive area being the ville d'hiver (winter town), whose wide shady streets are full of fanciful Second Empire mansions overlooking the seaside ville d'été (summer town). Well worth a wander, the area can be reached by following the lively pedestrianized and restaurant-filled rue de Maréchal-de-Lattre-de-Tassigny, running perpendicular to the seafront boulevard de la Plage; at the end of this mouthful of a street, a lift (daily 9am-12.45pm & 2.30-7pm) carries you up to the flower-filled, wooded Parc Mauresque (daily: April-Oct 7am-10pm; rest of year 8am-7.30pm; free), with the ville d'hiver beyond it. From the park, there are fine views over the seafront.