Holiday destinations need sunny beaches to make it big in world tourism. And France, being the top holiday destination in Europe, has a bucketful of the best, evenly distributed across three very distinctive coastlines.
The northern coast, facing the UK, has some of the most magnificent stretches of sand, thanks to shallow seas and the wave action from galloping tides. However, the water quality (and temperature) can be mixed, so the emphasis falls more on the tradition and style of the resorts.
The story changes further west. Around the jagged coastline of Finistère the water becomes clearer, the beaches smaller and more secretive, snuggled into creeks and coves. Finding them becomes a journey of discovery.
Heading south, the Atlantic-facing coastline smooths out by Morbihan, where the beaches start to widen and lengthen. At the Vendée, down by Nantes, the weather is reliably warm, so this is family beach holiday territory par excellence, moderately priced and accessible by car from the UK. Towards the distant southern end of this coast and the Pays Basques, the surf’s the thing, with Atlantic rollers grinding to a halt on the beaches of Biarritz.
And finally, jumping across the foot of France to the Mediterranean shoreline, the focus changes again. Here the water is calmer, warmer and more luxurious. There’s more glamour, more people-watching, and more splashing — of cash.
The beaches in the obvious Cote d’Azur hot spots — Antibes, St Tropez — can also be very crowded, with everyone heading for the sea to escape the summer heat.
So, wherever you go, there’s something here for everyone.
For the selection of beaches that follows we have taken water quality gradings from the French government website, which uses four categories: poor, adequate, good and excellent.
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1. Plage d’Étretat, Normandy
Water quality: excellent
Curved and sheltered by 90m chalk cliffs, Étretat’s (pebble) beach is famous for its sea-carved arch at one end, supposedly like an elephant dipping its trunk in the sea. The belle époque resort was popular with artists, including Monet, and remains a retreat for the elite.
Where to stay and eat
There’s inexpensive local produce in the lovely old wooden market hall, some of whose 19th-century ambiance is served up along with good food across the road in the Taverne des deux Augustins. Stay in Le Donjon Domaine Saint Clair, a glamorous spa property with a sea view.Room-only doubles from £117 (hoteletretat.com). Take the ferry to Dieppe
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2. Deauville Plage, Normandy
Water quality: good
While Le Touquet and Étretat are partly about socialising with the right kind of people, in Deauville the beach takes centre stage. Particularly down its more budget southwestern end, where extensive shallows make it ideal for families and uncertain swimmers.
Where to stay and eat
Up by town there’s a catwalk boardwalk and fancy-coloured parasols, and this is where the fashionistas strut their stuff before tucking into oysters in the Peniche restaurant, a converted barge, then retiring to the town’s neo-Tudor five-star hotel, Le Normandy. Room-only doubles from £341 (hotelsbarriere.com). Take the ferry to Caen
3. Gold Beach, Arromanches, Normandy
Water quality: good
The Normandy beaches are not just about recreation. Gold Beach by Arromanches is where British troops landed in the Second World War, while Omaha and Utah to the west are where the Americans came ashore. So enjoying these fantastic stretches of sand today is a bittersweet experience, as well as being very educational, particularly because Gold Beach has German bunker sites.
Where to stay and eat
Families will appreciate the burgers at Sergent Willys, just opposite the Normandy Landings museum in Arromanches (£11; musee-arromanches.fr), and all the green space around the converted farm-hotel Ferme de la Rançonnière. Room-only doubles from £79 (ranconniere.fr). Take the ferry to Caen
4. Plage de la Grande Greve, Chausey Isles, Normandy
Water quality: excellent
The Chauseys are granite outcrops 45 minutes by passenger ferry offshore from Granville on Normandy’s Cotentin peninsula. The tides here are huge, but Grande Greve is an immaculate, curved, south-facing strand whatever the water level. Day-trippers colonise the sand in summer, but early and late you’re likely to have the whole thing to yourself.
Where to stay and eat
The islands are famous for lobsters, so try the lobster roll in the only restaurant, Contre Vents et Marées (contreventsetmarees.fr), and then amble across the path to the island’s hotel, with its garden overlooking the anchorage. Half-board doubles from £180 (hotel-chausey.com). Take the ferry to St Malo
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5. Plage de Tahiti, Baie de Morlaix, Brittany
Water quality: excellent
A little beauty of a sheltered beach at the end of a sandy track through overhanging pines, Tahiti beach is something of a local secret. It sits at the end of the Carantec peninsula and looks out across the Bay of Morlaix at the castle on a rock that is Château du Taureau, the French Alcatraz.
Where to stay and eat
In Carantec itself, the Michelin-starred restaurant Nicholas Carro makes the most of the 15 oyster farms in the bay (set lunch from £30). His restaurant is part of the Hôtel Carantec, whose stylish, modern rooms are perfect for foodie, beachy, people. Room-only doubles from £82 (hotel-carantec.fr). Take the ferry to Roscoff
6. Cap Coz, Fouesnant, Brittany
Water quality: excellent
This narrow two-mile spit of white sand sticks out into turquoise waters, with rock pools and water sports. You couldn’t really ask for more of a beach, especially as it is south-facing, secreted at the back of a sheltered bay. Sailboats saunter in, attracted by the likes of the medieval walled town of Concarneau over on the bay’s eastern shore.
Where to stay and eat
But there’s no need to budge from Cap Coz, with the brasserie Le Canot right on the beach for crêpes and scallops and the Hôtel de la Pointe ideally placed mid-spit for early morning swims. Room-only doubles from £109 (hotel-capcoz.com). Take the ferry to Roscoff
7. Plage du Kerou, Le Pouldu, Brittany
Water quality: excellent
Gauguin spent two years in the tiny village of Le Pouldu, on the softer southern side of Brittany’s Finistère, where it is riddled with rias, seafood-rich creeks. The light here has a luminous intensity, the air so clean that it almost squeaks. Kerou is the best of a succession of small, dusky, wave-ribbonned beaches, where kitesurfers harvest the breeze.
Where to stay and eat
Walk the wildflower-rich GR34 coastal path and you’ll reach the Bar des Îles, a London double-decker serving tapas on the beach. Return to the unassuming Hôtel Naéco Le Pouldu, with its dorms and apartments. Room-only doubles from £57 (naeco.bzh). Take the ferry to Roscoff
8. Grand Plage de Carnac, Brittany
Water quality: excellent
The Morbihan section of the Brittany coast is family-friendly, with big, broad, generous beaches ideal for sandcastles. Carnac distinguishes itself amongst them because it is south-facing with silky sand, its hinterland littered with neolithic standing stones, and it is right by the placid, island-rich inland sea of the Gulf of Morbihan.
Where to stay and eat
At Carnac, the upmarket beach bar Le Fisher is great for sunset cocktails (lefisher.fr) and the beach’s main hotel, the Churchill, is a modern spa and pool property, despite the name. Room-only doubles from £100 (lechurchill.com). Take the ferry to Roscoff
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9. Plage des Demoiselles, St Jean des Monts, Vendée
Water quality: excellent
You can’t go wrong with the beaches in the Vendée, particularly if you’re travelling with young children. This section of Atlantic coastline is effectively an intermittent 90-mile ribbon of fine sand, southerly enough for good weather. It is broadest at St Jean de Monts, backed by pedestrian streets lined with resort-type shops, family attractions and extensive campsites.
Where to stay and eat
Get your crêpes at La Bolee (from £7.50; creperie-la-bolee.fr) and rent a mobile home at all-singing, all-dancing Camping Zagarella. Three nights’ self-catering for four from £139 (eurocamp.co.uk). Take the ferry to Roscoff
10. Plage des Dunes, Cap Ferret, Bordeaux
Water quality: excellent
The Atlantic coast west of Bordeaux is dune country. Europe’s highest, at more than 100m above sea level, is at Pilat, but the best actual beach here is just across the water on the sun-washed hanging finger of land that is Cap Ferret. Here the long Plage des Dunes is pristine and uncommercialised, while the bay of Arcachon inside it has everything you’ll need.
Where to stay and eat
That includes a restaurant with a view of the Pilat dune, La Cabane du Mimbeau which combines seafood with Bordeaux’s wines (lacabanedumimbeau.com) and a boutique hotel, Le Landerenis, with a pool and a bay view. Room-only doubles from £185 (landerenis.com). Fly to Bordeaux
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11. Plage Miramar, Biarritz
Water quality: excellent
Surfie culture has made Biarritz cool. Big Atlantic rollers sweep unhindered across the Bay of Biscay and come shuddering to a halt on the town’s sands, with dudes with dreads hitching a ride for the last part of their journey.
Where to stay and eat
Hardcore surfers may avoid a family-pleasing town beach like the Miramar, but it’s a good place for surf lessons and people-watching, particularly for surf widows, who can adjourn to Milady for great food and cocktails (mains from £10; milady-beach.fr). Or chill in the spa of the sumptuous Regina Experimental on the cliffs above. Room-only doubles from £166 (reginaexperimental.com). Fly to Biarritz
12. Plage de Hendaye, Pays Basque
Water quality: excellent
Blessed are the waters of Hendaye, for they refresh the pilgrims on the Camino en route to Compostela. Straddling the French-Spanish border, this wide, flat beach is simultaneously a learn-to-surf and family destination, while the town itself is a rail hub and old fishing port.
Where to stay and eat
A former casino on the shore hosts the Hegoa café (mains from £13, hegoa-cafe-restaurant-handaye.fr) should a pilgrim want refreshment overlooking the Twins, Hendaye’s distinctive offshore islets. The smart Ibaia hotel sits between the beach and the new marina in the old port. Room-only doubles from £110 (hotelibaia.com). Fly to Biarritz
13. Crique de L’Ouille, Collioure, Côte Vermeille
Water quality: excellent
The cove of L’Ouille sits just north of the pretty port of Collioure on France’s southernmost Mediterranean shore. Many of its visitors arrive on foot along the coastal path. The beach is tiny pebbles rather than sand, but sheltering headlands ensure that the water is particularly calm, brilliant for snorkelling.
Where to stay and eat
Collioure was a favourite for artists such as Matisse, Derain and Picasso, drawn here by the light and the colour. No doubt they would have loved the hippie chic L’Imprevu café on the beach (louille.fr), and appreciated the rooftop views from the Madeloc hotel too. Room-only doubles from £83 (madeloc.com). Fly to Perpignan or Montpellier
14. Palavas-les-Flots, Montpellier
Water quality: excellent
Much of France’s Mediterranean coastline between Perpignan and Montpellier is a string of sunwashed beaches, backed by large campsites. Many are on a thin rib of sand separated from the mainland by an inland sea of connected lagoons. Palavas-les-Flots sits offshore from Montpellier, at a lagoon intersection, its five miles of sand busy with jet skis, stand-up paddleboarding and beach volleyball.
Where to stay and eat
This is a place for serious tanning, with laidback beach cafés such as the Plage Bonaventure offering food and shade (laplagebonaventure.fr). Keep cool by staying on a converted barge with a plunge pool. B&B doubles from £143 (alphonsiamarialapeniche.eatbu.com). Fly to Montpellier
15. Plage de l’Espiguette, Camargue
Water quality: excellent
The south of France has one of the most intensely visited coasts in the world, but there are some secluded spots. This six-mile strand is on the west-facing cheek of the Camargue, a huge and protected area of marshes, lagoons and meadows. At Espiguette, reached via the small town of Grau du Roi, it seems like the sand goes on for ever. It’s a place to find your own half-mile and let your soul hang. But there are facilities, even here.
Where to stay and eat
The off-grid restaurant L’Oyat Plage is fashioned out of wood, reed and sailcloth (oyat-plage.com). And the Miramar, a more substantial café with rooms, is in town but still chilled. Room-only doubles from £101 (cafe-miramar.fr). Fly to Montpellier
16. En Vau Calanque, Marseilles
Water quality: excellent
The Calanques is a unique shorescape serrated by deep, cliffy creeks just south of Marseilles, one of which — En Vau — ends in a gem of a (stony) beach that can only be reached by sea or on foot from the small town of Cassis (two hours). It’s a protected area and there are no facilities, but the clarity of the water creates a fantastic aquarium for fish, so bring goggles, but beware cliff jumpers.
Where to stay and eat
Your nearest refreshment is back in Cassis, where the Presquile serves oysters on its sea-view terrace (three courses £44, restaurant-la-presquile.fr). Here the Mahogany hotel sits above another more accessible beach, the Bestouan. Room-only doubles from £128 (hotelmahogany.com). Fly to Marseilles
17. Plage de Pampelonne, Ramatuelle, St Tropez
Water quality: excellent
This is all you’d expect of a beach that is just down the road from St Tropez: iconic good looks with beautiful people, azure water and three miles of silky white sand. Superyachts, beach clubs, beach bars and water sports kiosks aplenty. Pricey, of course, but that comes with the territory.
Where to stay and eat
Eat here, at Byblos (mains from £29, byblos-beach.com), where every shades-wearer could be a star. And in the Ferme Augustin hotel, just up the road, they’ll serve breakfast in your room into the early afternoon — how decadent is that! Room-only doubles from £265 (fermeaugustin.com). Fly to Marseilles
18. Plage de Juan les Pins, Antibes
Water quality: good
Another big name on the Cote d’Azur. There’s a dozen little beaches sequestered around Cap d’Antibes, but the vast majority of visitors head for the heart of the action, on the long curve of the bay by Juan les Pins. The strand here is not very broad, so it can get busy, but that means buzzy too. The nightlife is animated and the horizon is a catwalk for superyachts.
Where to stay and eat
If you have the budget, Effet Mer Plage has tables on the beach (mains from £24; effetmerplage.fr) and the art deco Juana hotel recreates the glamour of the 1930s. Room-only doubles from £196 (hotel-juana.com). Fly to Nice
19. Plage Paloma, Cap Ferrat, Nice
Water quality: excellent
Cap Ferrat is a dangling foot of land east of Nice, caught in the act of kicking a ball at Monte Carlo. Plage Paloma sits on its instep, a well kept slice of small pebbles and coarse sand, down a small flight of steps and shaded by pines. The water here is clean, but it is the outlook that makes Paloma special, with a distant Monaco gleaming like spilt paint on the flank of the Alpes Maritimes region.
Where to stay and eat
In the evening, eat in Léo Léa by the St Jean marina just to the north, watching the lights come up (mains from £15; saint-jean-cap-ferrat.assietteauboeuf.fr). To complete the picture, stay in an Italianate villa, the Brise Marine, walking distance from Paloma. Room-only doubles from £148 (hotel-brisemarine.com). Fly to Nice
20. Paris Plage, Le Touquet, Hauts-de-France
Water quality: poor
The water may not be tip top, but France’s most fashionable resort between the wars has retained its art deco elegance and appeal, in part because it is so accessible from Paris. Given the water quality, many opt for sand yachting on its undeniably magnificent eight miles of flat sand.
Where to stay and eat
Back in the day, the likes of Noël Coward and Winston Churchill were Le Touquet regulars, and you can even buy scones in Elizabeth’s, a British style tea-room. The imperious Hôtel Barrière Le Westminster is where everyone grand stays. You might see the Macrons, who have a holiday home here. Room-only doubles from £212 (hotelsbarriere.com). Take Le Shuttle to Calais
Have we missed your favourite beach in France? Share your secret in the comments
