Qui a imaginé les villas Art Déco du Pyla ?

“You’re so Art Deco”, said Lana Del Rey in her song of the same name. It’s a tune you can hum along the streets of Pyla-sur-Mer as you admire the villas designed by local architect Roger-Henri Expert.

Born in Arcachon in 1882, he trained at the Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux and then Paris. This inspiring architect left behind a number of magnificent villas at Le Pyla, in the purest Art Deco style. These creations are often recognisable by their central rotunda (a circular building topped by a dome). Fancy a visit?

The Téthys, Canope and Lyside villas

Visit Villa Téthys, edifying and intimate

Villa Téthys is one of five immaculately white properties built in the region between 1924 and 1927 by Roger-Henri Expert. Set on the edge of the ocean, Villa Téthys is named after a Greek marine goddess. You’ll fall head over heels in adoration!

It is organised around a vast central room with a rotunda, and opens onto an intimate garden to the east, combining architecture, vegetation and water features. This Art Deco villa is listed in the supplementary inventory of historic monuments. In other words: in summer, the owners open their doors to you for a visit, by making a reservation with the La Teste de Buch Tourist Office! Mediterranean atmosphere guaranteed!

Villas Canope and Lyside are not to be outdone!

Also built on the seafront, these two villas are practically twins. Immaculately white, they may contrast with your tanned skin (inevitably, after a day at the Dune du Pilat...). Expert, their architect, has played perfectly with the spaces: there’s a silent, complicit dialogue between the inside and outside of these villas built for a Grenoble entrepreneur. What do you mean, villas talk? Yes, yes. It even sings! “It’s a white house, set against the beautiful dune…”

The Arcachon Basin and architecture: a great love story

La Teste de Buch and the Basin are home to a year-round festival of architecture, from picturesque to Art Deco. At the foot of the Dune du Pilat, the neo-Basque style is also evident: whitewashed houses with colourful timber-framed walls, perfectly integrated into the landscape of maritime pines. Don’t delay in planning your trip!