La Paillote Village Hotel

Guests reach the beach at La Paillote down a run of steps cut into the dune, the Atlantic opening out below a garden of four hectares. Françoise and Christian Jacquot have run the property for forty years, and the pace still follows their own motto: calm and rest, not noise. Thirty bungalows sit under traditional Diola thatch roofs, each with a private terrace, table and chairs, a sun lounger, air conditioning, satellite TV, a safe, a mini-fridge and a private bathroom. Breakfast is served on the bungalow terrace or by the restaurant deck facing the ocean. At lunch, tables move onto the sand at the Paillotin, where salads, grilled skewers and tropical fruit are the order of the day. Dinner is taken under the restaurant's large thatch canopy or out on the terrace, with fish and shellfish landed locally the standing draw. The beach bar runs late into the evening, cocktails mixed to order against a backdrop of palms and sea. You can hear waves and, further off, djembe drums instead of any amplified entertainment. The hotel sits 3 km from Cap Skirring's international airport and 2 km from the village itself, with Cabrousse's traditional settlement a short run further on. A nine-hole golf course lies next door. It is a quiet, garden-set stay by the shore.