While seemingly everyone is perennially flocking to the Côte d’Azur, there’s a sizeable contingent that prefers a seaside getaway that’s a little less glam. Not to say the Ile de Ré is gritty, exactly, but the unpretentious little port town of Saint-Martin is a magnet for a certain set of urban sophisticates, from Paris and elsewhere, who prefer a charmingly ramshackle seaside town to the conspicuous extravagance of a Cannes or a Saint-Tropez — and if there’s one hotel that perfectly encapsulates the atmosphere of Saint-Martin-de-Ré it’s the Hôtel de Toiras.
It’s run by a veteran of the Parisian high-end hospitality world, and yet it’s refreshingly low-key, classic in style but never imposingly formal or off-puttingly opulent. Her restaurant, La Table d’Olivia, is simple coastal French, and the bar is a clubby little lounge, more like a drawing room than a nightclub. Meanwhile the rooms, named for figures from the Ile de Ré’s past, are straight-faced and traditional — design is clearly beside the point here. What is entirely the point is the atmosphere, both within this classic small hotel and out and about on the harbor and in the town. Brittany’s Atlantic coast may still sound to some like an odd choice for a holiday — let’s try to keep it that way.
author watson@mouselink.net, source www.tablethotels.com