Best of both: pretty French town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz is just minutes from Spanish border and a holiday-home hotspot
Delightful Saint-Jean-de-Luz sits in the foothills of the Pyrenees where south-west France meets northern Spain.
Fashionable French and Spanish families holiday in the small Basque town, swelling the 13,000 year-round population to 50,000 in summer, but otherwise it stays happily low-key.
Saint-Jean is 15 minutes from both Biarritz to the north and the Spanish border to the west. The town’s historic wealth came from fishing in the 14th century and the daily catch is still displayed in the lively covered market.
The long, sandy beach is on a wide, protected Atlantic bay and the charming centre is filled with small independent shops.
Architectural heritage includes Italian Renaissance and half-timber façades while the Basque influence shows in the sublime food and drink: chillies from Espelette, salted hams from the Aldudes valley, wonderful seafood, almond cakes and Txakolina, a lightly effervescent, dry white wine.
Fly to Biarritz or Bordeaux and there’s a direct train to the centre of Saint-Jean. The rail line continues to Hendaye on the French-Spanish border, so you can start the day in France and cross into Spain for lunch.
Small-scale, handsome and with a good family-focused holiday infrastructure, Saint-Jean-de-Luz attracts wealthy house buyers, says Caroline Laffontan of Laffontan Immobilier.
“The property market is strong, with demand from holidaymakers and also French buyers relocating here. Most want to live in the centre so they can walk or cycle everywhere.”
Two-bedroom flats from £357,000 sell quickly but there is little new build to be had. Laffontan is selling an attractive 926sqft three-bedroom flat by the beach for £580,000.
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A larger, newly renovated three-bedroom flat in the town, in a 15th-century ship owner’s house, is £740,500.
Christie’s International Real Estate has a four-bedroom flat in the centre with balcony for £772,000 and directly across the Nivelle river on the beach in Ciboure, a renovated townhouse with six bedrooms for £678,300.
“Thanks to its exceptional bay Saint-Jean-de-Luz’s real estate market is among the most active on the Basque coast,” says Nicolas Deschamps of Christie’s affiliates Côte Ouest. “Villas currently for sale there start from £714,000.”