Cap Ferret, the Cape Cod of France

Not to be confused with Cap Ferrat, its flashier southeastern counterpart, Cap Ferret, a skinny, 11-mile-long spit of sand hemmed by the glittering waters of Arcachon Bay to the east and the Atlantic’s swells to the west, was for a century populated mostly by oysters and the fishermen who farmed them. By the 1950s, wealthy families from Bordeaux (about an hour away by car) had wisened to Cap Ferret’s rustic charms, and began spending summers in the headland’s creaky, blue-shuttered wooden cottages. Over the past decade, the area has welcomed a wider set of pleasure-seekers from Paris and beyond, acquiring a reputation as the Cape Cod of France: a place where celebrities meet surfers, and yachts are discouraged in favor of traditional wood pinasses — narrow open-air boats.

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From “A Guide to Cap Ferret, the Cape Cod of France“ by Tom Vanderbilt for the New York Times T Magazine; Photo by Sabine Mirlesse (@sabine_mirlesse)  

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