The Good Life France Magazine




The Good Life France Magazine brings you the best of France - inspirational and exclusive features, fabulous photos, mouth-watering recipes, tips, guides, ideas and much more...


Published by the award winning team at The Good Life France

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5 months ago

AUTUMN 2024

  • Text
  • Free magazine
  • Paris
  • France
  • Brittany
  • Lyon
  • Bordeaux
  • Photography
  • Travel
  • Recipes
Packed with brilliant guides, features and stunning photos, mouth-watering recipes from top chefs, culture, history and much much more. Discover Paris & its hidden gems and dodge-the-drizzle treats, beautiful Bordeaux and it's secret seaside sensation, Cap d'Agde, Corsica and the off-the-beaten track Cele Valley in the Lot, Narbonne, Lyon & Languedoc and many more fabulous French gems.

concoctions, or maybe to

concoctions, or maybe to choose which superb restaurant to dine at, or which pool to swim in! Heavenly rooms, a private lodge on a lake (Beyoncé and Jay-Z are fans), it’s what dreams are made of. Truly gorgeous with the family’s art-filled vineyards, Château Smith Haut Lafitte literally across the road. Paradise. Spotted offshore – not a real whale but a fun art installation! Skippers Patrick and Laurent surf and forests that cover much of the Medoc Peninsula. Great for surfing, sailing, sunbathing, swimming and generally chilling out on the beaches. Art filled vineyards of Château Smith Haut Lafitte Bordeaux beaches – The Silver Coast Arcachon The town is made up of four districts named after the seasons with the Ville d’Hiver, the winter resort, featuring fabulous Belle Epoque villas. There’s a big marina, tamarisk tree-lined boulevards peppered with plenty of restaurants, bars, shops, apartment blocks and hotels. Architectural styles range from French Empire (Napoleon III), Belle Epoque and modern and even pagoda style! The resort developed rapidly after the arrival the railways when Bordelais (people from Bordeaux) started to build villas by the water, both the Atlantic Ocean and the Bay of Arcachon, almost an inland sea. When Napoleon III arrived for a holiday, it put the town on the list of most fashionable holiday resorts. Celebrities and royals soon followed. Today it’s a laidback place to take a break – with stunning beaches, fabulous restaurants like Le Saint Ferdinand where sitting out in the sun, eating the freshest of sea food is one of life’s loveliest pleasures. Don’t miss a guided tour of the bay by boat with skippers Patrick and Laurent Stephane Bidouze via Canva (deshommesetdesmers.com). Cruise past the Isle aux Oiseaux, the island of birds, admire cabanes tchanquées, wooden huts on stilts, used in the past by the oyster fisherman. Slurp succulent oysters and sip wine, discover secluded bays, enjoy the stories and anecdotes of the area (available in English), then the skippers open up the throttle to speed back to base, James Bond style! This tidal lake isn’t the only geological wonder here, and you can’t fail to miss the mountainous Dune of Pilat, a tourist destination in its own right, with up to 2 Ville d’Hiver © Kevin Biette, Arcachon Tourism Around 60km (38 miles) from the city (and easily reached by train), Arcachon is one of France’s best kept secret seaside resorts and a pearl of the Côte d'Argent, the Silver Coast as this stretch of shoreline is known, thanks to the silvery colour of the sea’s surface when the sun is shining. The French know and love it, but most holiday makers to France have never heard of it, though they may have heard of the famous oysters that come from here. Some 130km (80 miles) of coastline, mostly beaches, run between the Atlantic Lège Cap-Ferret 18 | The Good Life France The Good Life France | 19