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SUNSbiUE 5tÛtc
TRAVEL SUMMER 2OIO
Alentejo, Portugal
(- 9arx
Evervonc
Into lé Pool!
In France, sleepaway camps
are maturing into stylislt
hote I s. C h risîop he r Petkanas
grabs a bunk.
he French are so good at
drilling down, at paring and
distilling, that hardly anyone
thinks twice when a saffron
farm in Provence opens its
doors to paying guests these days. On what
seemed like aa absurd hunch, the owners of
l'Aube Safran gambied correctly that there
are enough people in the world whose idea of
heaven is to spend theirvacation harvesting
crocuses, tweezing out the stigmas and
eating bouillabaisse.
With its historic appreciation for the
charms and excesses ofa good fetish, France
today is all about the delightfully eccentric,
microniche hotel. If a guest experience built
around a spice sounds too precious forwords,
you can always go the bohemian route and
spend the night in a marooned Gypsywagon.
(My favorite is at Le NIas dou Pastre in the
Alpilles.) Or maybe you take an extreme
view oftree hugging and book at Les Folies
dhmédée, in a forest near Limoges, rvhere the
adventurous can sleep in an egg-shaped frame
ofchestnut branches, stretched with cowhide
and hung high from a limb.
So it was only a matter oftime before
someone hit on the idea oftransforming an old
summer camp into an alluring hotel that trades
on the sentimental feelings the French have
fot the colonies de vacances they were packed off
to as kids. A beachy mix of bamboo, sisal and
beadboard paneling, La Maison de la Prade
is 40 miles north of Biarritz in Messanges and
a L0-minute walk from the Atlantic. (Other
colonies-turned-hotels include the swanky
Villa Tri Men in Brittany and the rustic
Domaine de Montvianeix in the Auvergne.)
"The hotels play offthe great wave of
40
PHOTORAPHSB\'À}IBROISETEZE\A5
Notes on camp
Ciockwise from top:
La Maiscn de la Prade
in Messanges, France;
the old dormitories;
the hotel's pool.
nostalgia for the less prosperous and more
solidaristic nation in which the colonies
flourished," says Laura Lee Dolrns, the author
of "Histoire des Colonies de Vacances, de
1880 à Nos Jows" (Éditions Perrin). Colonies
r,r'ere born in the late 19th century as a
social rçeltàre movement, shuttling legions
ofsicklv chiidren ofthe working poor from
industriai cities to rural locations in summer
the anemic $.ere sent to the seaside,
the pretubercular to the mountains and the
"nervous" to the countryside. (Companies
like Air France and the SNCF raii system stiil
sponsor câmps for the chiidren of employees.)
A colonie is probably not what you think
it is. There are no damp, rickety cabins à
I'Américaine. Neither are there usually tents
this is France. You could mistake La Prade
for the sprawling whitewashed weekend
crib of deep-pocketed Parisians. (Tri Men is
a belle épotluevilla, Montvianeix a 35-acre
farm complex.) Purpose-built in 1930, it was
-
-
designed rvith a surprising sensitivity to
detail. A lovely frieze of marine motifs swims
under the eâves at La Prade, and CotONIE
DE VACANCES is spelled out in smart,
Deco-ish letters over the door. Owned by the
council of the Landes département,the
camp operated untii 1987, at times with the
SNCF as benefactor. Then for almost 20
years, the property was abandoned except for
"the squatters who graffitied the old
dormitories and tore. through them on
skateboards," says Sylvie Ducousso, one of
the hotel's current owners.
When the colonie was finallyput up for sale,
every offer except one was for razing it and
developing a rdsidence de vacances (translation:
nasty subdivision). Only Ducousso and her
husband, Franck, a golfpro, planned not just to
keep the place but enshrine its past. The lobby
is hung with fuzzy blowups of old sepia
postcards of young La Prade inmates refusing
to pretend they're having a good time. Sixteen
Sun worship Left: one of the
rooms ât La Prade. Below:
the region's pristine beaches
attrêct â mellow crowd.
Voyrg.r to Antiquity brings to life
the exciting and inspiring history
of the Mediterranean.
All programs are 16 days and fares include:
SHORE EXCURSIONS
GRATUITIES
EXPERT LECTURE PROGRAM
\ryINË WITH DINNER
----
TRANSFERS & PORTERAGE
At Ls Prnde, what
& SICILIAN
TREASURTS
GR-EEK
Departs: July 26
Cruise from ATHENS to ROME
rron 93,695pp
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SICIY & POMPEII
Departs: August 9
Cruise.from ROME to YENICE
non 93,695pp
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. FREEAIR FROM OVER 70 GATEWAYS
. NO SINGLE SUPPLEMENT
. ONË CAIEGORY UPGRADE
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DATMATIAN COAST
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butMessanges'threemilesorsatinysand is
guest rooms were sliced out of the dorms and
filled with shipshape furniture made iocallv
in pine and oak and modem l ersions in fruitv
coiors ofthe traditional striped fabrics of
-!
the neighboring Basque region.
The facade
remains intact thanks to a covered gallery
built onto the back. Guests enter their rooms
via this addition, an architectural wink
at the vernacular farm buildings dotting the
surrounding landscape. The former private
quarters ofthe counselors are now two suites.
The Ducoussos' management style hits just
the rigbt note: not too slick, not too relaxed. La
Prade must be the last hotel on earth not to
demand a deposit.
The racier and more touristy attractions of
Biarcitz and, to the north, Bordeaux, make
Messanges all but American-proof: few can be
bothered to make it this far up or down the
coast. Mostly what you get are Messieurs and
Mesdames Toutlemondes biking, hiking,
wearing out the bean bags around the pooi at
La Prade, picnicking on the side ofthe road
(the hotel prepares hampers of foie-grasstufed goose neck and fresh sheep's
cheese with biack-cherry jam), sunning and
swimming. French beaches get a bad rap,
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ïï;:ï.i,'.ï':iartargetpopurationcanno
Since by definition colonies accept children
only, hoteis like La Prade are really quite
clever, making echoes of the coionie life
available to families. When I mentioned this
at a recent dinner party in Paris, everyone
perked up with misty tales of lost innocence:
straw mattresses, human pyramids and care
packages from Mamie âlled with
indestructible Président Camembert and
tubes of Nestlé sweetened concentrated milk.
I'd gone to Boy Scout camp as a kid, but there
was no point in trying to share my own
sleepaway experience with French friends,
because like so many experielces, the French
feel they own it. r
ESSENTIALS. FRANCE
HOTELS Domaine de
Montvianeix
Saint-Victor-N4ontvianeix; 011-33.4-73-94-02-95;
montvianeix.com; doubles from $115. La Maison
de la Prade Avenue de la Plage, Messanges;
011-33-5-58-48-38-96; lamaisondelaprade.com;
doubles from $16O. LAube Safran 45O Chemin du
Patifiage, Le Barroux; 0i1-33-4-90-62-66-91;
aube-safran.com; doubles from about $180.
Le Mas dou Pâstre Quartier Saint-Sixte, Eygalières;
O11-33-4-90-95-92-61; masdupastre.com; twoperson wagons from $17O. Les Folies d?médée
Saint-Pierre-de-Fursac; 011-33-5-55-63-62{8;
loufagotin.com; cabanas $40 per person. Villa
Tri Men 16 Rue du Phare, Sainte-Marine;
011-33-2-98-51-94-94; trimen.fr; doubles from $245