Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez

When France’s Atlantic coast resorts built grand seaside hotels in the 1930s, they borrowed liberally from ocean liner aesthetics, all curves and optimism. Hôtel Frédéric in Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez embodied that era’s Art Deco flourish, one of many belle époque survivors dotting the Vendée’s ‘Côte de Lumière.’ After decades welcoming summer holidaymakers to its thirteen rooms (ten with ocean views), the hotel closed its doors. But in 2024, it got an unexpected curtain call: filmmakers chose its vintage facade for an ARTE television production, proving that even shuttered hotels can still play their part.

The production crew spent a month there that autumn, using the empty hotel as a base for costumes and set decoration while cameras rolled on the beaches nearby. Locals watched two hundred and sixty extras cycle through a building most of them assumed had gone quiet for good. Book a room today and the major travel sites will still take your reservation, complete with photos of a chandeliered lobby and a 9.2 guest rating, a hotel that exists in the digital world roughly a year after it stopped existing in the physical one.