Travel Guide Arcachon

With its 2,000 hectares, Arcachon is one of France's largest communities. Its early successes were also due to sea bathing, which became very popular in the early 19thcentury . Initially, facilities were limited to a few log cabins, when a sailor, Captain François Legallais, opened the region's first hotel-bathhouse in August 1823. But the town owes part of its success to Napoleon III: the Emperor was enchanted by the area, which adjoins La Teste-de-Buch. The arrival of the railroad in 1857 did the rest. Arcachon's architectural heritage is characterized by the superb villas in the Ville d'Hiver created by the Pereire brothers in 1862. They bought 400 hectares of wooded dunes on the heights of the town, which they decided to subdivide. As many as 300 villas were built in a variety of styles: Moorish, colonial, manor and neo-Gothic. They are adorned with cornices, corbels, bow-windows, half-moon windows, dormer windows, balconies with wooden openings, etc. In the 1960s, the town acquired a marina, the second largest on the Atlantic coast. It boasts 2,600 moorings and more than 750 berths. Today, the town is alive all year round. The seafront, nearly 3 kilometers long, is very busy. It's bustling with bars and restaurants, and the long pier is a must-see. The market square has been completely renovated and all the adjacent streets are very busy. Arcachon also offers numerous walks along the Bassin, on the southern beaches and especially on the Dune du Pilat.