Property for sale in Ville d'Hiver, Arcachon: villas under the pines

A town designed for clean air

Just above the town centre, on the wooded dune, the Ville d’Hiver (literally the “Winter Town”) is probably Arcachon’s most unusual neighbourhood. Arcachon became a town in its own right in 1857, the year the Pereire brothers, who ran the Compagnie des chemins de fer du Midi railway company, extended the line all the way here. They then came up with the idea of a town on the heights, designed around health.

The layout was entrusted to Paul Régnauld, an engineer with the Compagnie du Midi. His curving lanes were no accident: they sheltered the invalids who came to breathe the pine-forest air from the wind. The neighbourhood was inaugurated in 1863, and Napoleon III visited on 4 October that same year.

Several hundred villas

What strikes you as you walk around is the sheer variety of the villas: Swiss chalets, Gothic Revival manor houses, Moorish pavilions, colonial and neo-Palladian villas, and later on Art Deco. Each one has its own name and its own story.

Villa Brémontier, built in 1863, was the most prestigious of the rental chalets. Villa Toledo, a former Spanish-style gymnasium, hides a trompe-l’œil staircase. Graigcrostan was built for a Scottish laird, and Villa Alexandre-Dumas, formerly Villa Osiris belonging to the banker Daniel Iffla, was bequeathed to the Institut Pasteur. Villa Thérésa, in Hispano-Moorish style, is a listed historic monument.

The neighbourhood has welcomed some famous names: King Alfonso XII of Spain in 1879, Charles Gounod in 1882 and Louis Pasteur in 1892.

The Parc Mauresque, the lookouts and the lift

The Parc Mauresque, now an arboretum, is the green heart of the neighbourhood: rose bushes, a bandstand, an open-air theatre, a playground and red benches. It takes its name from the Moorish casino inspired by the Alhambra, which was destroyed by fire in 1977.

Close by, the passerelle Saint-Paul footbridge spans a ravine some fifteen metres deep, and the observatoire Sainte-Cécile, free to visit all year round, gives you a view over the rooftops, the forest and the Bassin. On place Fleming, the 1893 bandstand recalls the concerts of days gone by.

To get down to the centre, a free lift, running since 1948, links the Parc Mauresque with the Ville d’Été (the “Summer Town” by the sea). In a matter of seconds, you go from the villas to the seafront.

A protected neighbourhood

The Ville d’Hiver has been a registered protected site since 1985, and its northern part, around the Parc Mauresque, since 1943. Its villas are identified in the local urban plan, and any building work is reviewed by the architecte des Bâtiments de France, the state architect in charge of heritage areas.

It is a constraint, but it is also what has preserved the character of the neighbourhood: large plots, gardens full of trees, very little new building. Here, the peace and quiet and the pines aren’t a sales pitch, they’re protected.

Living in the Ville d'Hiver

Life here is calm, under the pines and holm oaks, just a few minutes’ walk from the market, the shops and the beach. The neighbourhood works just as well for a main home as for a family house you come back to every season.

When I look at a villa in the Ville d’Hiver, I check how authentic the original features are, the condition of the roof and the woodwork, the quality of the garden, the light, and what kind of work is possible given the site’s protected status. With the right guidance, buying here is an investment of the heart as much as an asset to pass down.

If you’re thinking of settling in Arcachon, or selling a property here, I’d be delighted to talk it through with you.