This September, 700,000 Heures – the world’s first wandering hotel – is making its way to France’s Cap Ferret peninsula for a one-month appearance. Rose Dykins reports

From September 2 to October 3, 2022, nomadic hotel brand 700,000 Heures will make the Cap Ferret peninsula its new home, coinciding with the ephemeral hotel’s fourth birthday.

The latest iteration of 700,000 Heures will pop up at a seafront location overlooking France’s beautiful Arcachon Bay.

A paradisiacal place that’s managed to remain under the radar, the Cap Ferret peninsula lies a one-hour drive from Bordeaux Mérignac airport, or one hour and 20 minutes by car from Bordeaux Saint-Jean train station.

Cap Ferret is loved by those in-the-know for its untouched natural beauty. Visitors can explore the surrounding pine forest, silky sand dunes, ocean bays, river scenery, vineyards and picturesque fishing villages with multi-coloured wooden huts.

The new 700,000 Heures Cap Ferret will offer a peaceful retreat in a mild, warm climate, and: “a rare and unique stay, halfway between the end of summer and the beginning of autumn.”

700,000 Heures founder and CEO Thierry Teyssier said: “Celebrating 700,000 Heures’ fourth anniversary at Cap Ferret was an obvious choice for me. I spent my childhood there. And it is an ideal place to share and celebrate. What better way to bring us together than a family celebration, to enjoy life despite the last two years we have faced?”

700,000 HeuresAddressing 700,000 Heures clientele directly, Teyssier said: “It seemed important to me to offer you something unique: to make you live my most beautiful memories of Cap Ferret as a child, as a father and now as a grandfather.

“The Banc d’Arguin, the Pyla dune, the Bird Island, the Conche du Mimbeau, the large beaches, the table or the Torchère, the villages of Canon, of l’Herbe, the port of la Vigne… so many places where you will meet my friends, my family and where you will understand how the 700’000 Heures spirit was born.”

For its latest outpost, enigmatic hotel experience will take the form of a wooden home along the coast with three available rooms – ranging from 45 sqm to 50 sqm in size. Guests will benefit from an all-inclusive experience that includes nature-based activities and nautical excursions and all meals, snacks and drinks (except for champagne and airport transfers).

As per the typical 700,000 Heures programme, there will be no minimum length of stay at the hotel. Guests also have the freedom to spend each day however they choose without pre-planning – be it a boat trip or lunch on the Pyla sand dune.

The nearby Bird Island is famous for its Tchanque cabins, and it’s possible for guests to meet with a local oyster farmer and join him as he goes about his work, then have dinner with him to taste oysters prepared his way.

Other options include trips up the Lyre river, clam fishing, surfing, sunset beach picnics, visiting the nearby Médoc vineyards, forest walks, and hunting for porcini mushrooms to cook on the hotel’s private beach beneath the pine trees.

Prices are €1,700 per day for a single room, or €2,200 per day for two guests in a double room, with an additional €500 per day for a child’s bed.

Previously, the nomadic 700,000 Heures hotel has popped up in Salento, Cambodia, Brazil, Place Vendôme, Japan, Lecce, Montmartre, Lake Como and Berlin, taking its signature custom travelling trunks and shapeshifting when it pops up in each new place.

Named after the average number of hours each of us spends on earth, 700,000 Heures aims to encourage a new way of thinking about hotels and a new way of travelling that is: “more memorable, more meaningful and more human.”