I am potentially Le Touquet’s biggest fan, as anyone who knows me will know. I believe it to be the happiest town on earth and I’m there about six times a year.
There are many reasons why this little coastal town in northern France – just 45 minutes from the Channel tunnel – has my heart, but here are just a few:
- I love its friendly, warm people, who tolerate my mutilation of their beautiful language!
- The cuisine is to die for and the French place considerable influence on provenance, freshness and making mealtimes a priority
- Live bands often pop up and play on the corner of the streets
- Jolly Christmas tunes are played on speakers in the streets over the festive period
- The people virtually sing ‘bonjour’ to you as they pass
- Its bustling market – selling everything from jams to jewellery
- The fact that when you ask for an avocado, for example, in the green grocer staff will ask when you want to eat it (this is important) before busying off and picking you the best one they can find, depending on when your meal is
- The shopping (please launch in the UK, Promod)
- I love its bars and restaurants
Wherever you go, you can strike up a conversation with fellow visitors or the local patron, learn about different cultures and just generally recharge and enjoy. You come away feeling altogether ‘enriched’ – I do, anyway!
At the centre of this charming town, which has its own version of New Orléans-style architecture, is the Rue de Metz – an artery running through Le Touquet, parallel to the sea.
The town’s market is held at one end of this street, at its covered market, every Monday, Thursday and Saturday. I’d highly recommend co-ordinating a visit to coincide with a market day.
Along Rue de Metz and the roads which run off it, you’ll find a cacophony of bars and restaurants to suit all tastes. The more swish, modern and international in style are popping up more frequently nowadays, but there are many which ooze French character and style.
It’s possible to walk (or stagger) from one end of Rue de Metz to the other on a magnificent bar crawl – staying out until the wee small hours. There are also several beach bars dotted along the beach (above), open from April onwards (but that’s another blogpost).
Here is the Sun Lounger’s guide to the best bars in Le Touquet (all of them dog friendly), starting at one end of Rue de Metz and ending at the other:
Situated at 60 Rue de Calais (a continuation of Rue de Metz, in the Quentovic part of town), this is where locals gather on a weekend morning for a small beer or coffee or during the day for a chat and a vin rouge. It’s a bar, newsagent and tobacconist, and generally a pillar of the town.
The regulars wish you a ‘bonne journee’ (or good day) as they come in to pick up a lottery ticket and enjoy a glass of something, and every other Saturday in July and August, the street closes, tables come out and a man in a spangly jacket (Bruno) rocks up and plays joyous French tunes on the decks, while French people link arms with you and invite you to dance.
To me, it sums up what Le Touquet is all about. It is pure happiness. The décor won’t grab you and the loos are a bit ‘French’, but long may it stay that way.
On a Sunday morning, I like to buy a ham baguette (made to order) from nearby Maison Houdin and enjoy it with a mint tea at Le Quento, chatting to friends old and new in my very best French, often nursing a ‘mal à tête’.
There is a small market at nearby Place Quentovic on a Sunday morning and a jazz band plays on the square every now and then. It’s well worth stopping for a glass of cold Sancerre and an oyster or two on the market, if you’re passing.
Le Quento is open daily from 8.30am to 8pm. It closes at 12.30pm on Sundays and is closed all day on Mondays.
What used to be a petit corner restaurant mostly serving lobster at 39 Rue de Metz (the seafood in Le Touquet is second to none), is now this tasteful, cosy bar serving beer, wine, champagne and finger food, with a very warm welcome and some great vintages.
We happened upon Le B by chance, when looking for a night cap, having walked past it several times over the years (I have an allergy to lobster). Le B opened in April 2023 and now has a menu of great wines, minus the haughty atmosphere you might expect in a UK wine bar. Ask for recommendations and the owner will expertly make suggestions for you to try before you buy (he also speaks excellent English).
I thoroughly enjoyed an evening at Le B – attempting to speak my very best French to patron Bertrand and one or two locals, feeling more and more confident after every glass – and were very sad to leave. This will certainly become a regular haunt when we are back in town next…which won’t be too long!
Le B au Touquet is open from 11am to 12am on Fridays and Saturdays and is closed on Mondays. It closes between 3pm and 6.30pm, Tuesday to Thursday.
Situated in the centre of town on at 94 Rue de Londres, which runs parallel to Rue de Metz, a friend and I happened upon the oldest café in Le Touquet (it opened in 1901) about eight years ago. We had broken away from other friends (who’d had enough fun and were going back to their accommodation for a nap) and we wanted to rebel. Rebel we did!
We ended up having a hoot in this bar, which is like nothing else I had ever experience and in which time has stood still! I went looking for it on my own a few years later, and thought it had closed. Imagine our joy when the same friend and I went back again this summer and found out I was wrong and it was still there!
Have a locally-brewed beer sitting at a barrel in the sunshine outside, as the bar man belts out tunes in French, or a glass of wine at one of the tables in the wood-panelled interior, the walls of which are covered in paraphernalia from yesteryear. Le Poste survived the wars (Le Touquet was occupied by the Germans in WWII) and proudly lives to tell the tale.
Le Café de le Poste (situated behind the post office) is open daily from 9am to 10pm.
As a rule, I avoid Irish bars and sports bars like the plague, but look beyond the sports paraphernalia and you’ll see that Le Globe – at 66 Rue de Metz – is decidedly French.
In the summer months, tables spill out on to the street (it’s opposite the utterly fabulous seafood restaurant Perard), the music is loud and it’s full of British golfers who want to chat and are mostly wearing loud shirts. In the winter, I bag a tall stool indoors by the window and have a front row seat to watch the parade of the Christmas floats, which is a magical affair.
I’ve seen people ordering pizza next door from the lively brasserie Le Matisse (open 9.30am to midnight daily in busy periods) and having it delivered to them at Le Globe. The bar is open from 8.30am to 2am every day. It is almost always packed and the bar staff work bloody hard! Go there to make new friends and have a ruddy good laugh.
Follow them on social media (they have some fab content).
Attracting a predominantly younger crowd, L’Impasse stays open until 3am and it’s therefore where you’ll find us, usually dancing, at the end of the night. Owned by the Belle Histoire group which has several venues throughout town, including the truly excellent restaurant La Base Nord, it’s modern, loud and brash, but the only place to be when everywhere else has closed at the end of the night.
It isn’t full of French character (it has a Cuban theme) and the pavement/road outside is usually crammed with people trying to get in (I would hate to have an apartment opposite), but it has a firm place among Le Touquet nightlife as the place where you can get your last drink.
It’s frequented by families during the day (it’s like a vast cavern at the back) and people sit and enjoy the world go by from the terrace, while enjoying a coffee during daylight hours.
L’Impasse (or ‘dead end’) is open from 8am to 3am every day, serves around 20 varieties of beer and has an endless shelf of spirits…so it would be a shame not to sample a cocktail!
Which route to take on your bar crawl very much depends on which part of town you are staying in, but I recommend Le Quento or La Poste first, followed by Le B, Globetrotter and L’Impasse (in that order), guided by when they close.
Also worth a mention, but a short walk from Rue de Metz, is friendly Algy’s, virtually next door to the (soon to be former) residence of President Macron and his wife. You will see the security guards outside and also around town. Rumour has it, the Macrons have sold their large property (situated over an estate agency) for somewhere in the region of €6m plus and are making an apartment on the seafront their Le Touquet residence.
Algy’s, at Avenue Saint Jean – the main shopping street of the town – is a prime spot, situated in the up market ‘triangle d’or’ (or ‘golden triangle’) area of Le Touquet, but remains an everyday, friendly bar. I find it a great place to sit and dog watch.
There are many great bars in Le Touquet. Find yours and enjoy. Santé!
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