There are places where time stands still. Head for Saint-Marc-sur-Mer, a little corner of paradise in Saint-Nazaire
A quiet seaside, even in the middle of summer, accessible without a car, and a hotel planted in the sand? Look no further, it’s in Saint-Marc-sur-Mer, which looks more like a small seaside resort with a slightly old-fashioned charm than a district of Saint-Nazaire. Yet we are only 8 km from the city center and 35 minutes by bus (line U3) from the train station. And hop, we drop off our bags at the aptly named Hôtel de la Plage, where Antoine welcomes us. Rooms with a sea view, dinner with a sea view, breakfast with a sea view… it’s everywhere, along this deep beach, which, with its jetty, its red sand and its large black granite rocks, forms a circus that caught the eye of the director Jacques Tati. In 1951, he filmed Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday there.
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Filming anecdotes
The ideal location has remained so. Leaning over a parapet, the bronze statue of Monsieur Hulot seems to be watching a lady running after her parasol blown away by the wind. Sitting at the back, on the wooden steps, we are also part of the show, while Pierre Joubert and Jean-Claude Chemin tell how the film crew came, in their childhood, to occupy their playground and this jetty where a small lighthouse (a fake) was erected, while they fished for smelts there. Twice during the summer, they comment on a visit…
- Femina.fr
