How Dorothée Meilichzon brought glamour back to Biarritz’s grande dame hotel
Much has changed at this Belle Époque hotel perched on a cliff overlooking the Bay of Biscay, but one thing the owners of the Regina Experimental Biarritz have retained is its history. After all, this coastal resort was once a renowned playground for royalty and celebrities alike. Sit in the foyer, with its soaring 15-metre-high atrium topped with a glass roof designed in the style of the Eiffel Tower, and you can imagine the chatter and clinking of glasses of this hotel’s art deco former heyday.
Today, Regina Experimental’s group interior designer Dorothée Meilichzon’s reinterpretation of these glory days sees them translated for modern travellers (including the many surfers that now flock to these shores for their superior waves). The grandeur of the hotel’s central atrium is retained, but there’s also a note of cosiness thanks to low-hanging pendant lights (paper shades by Ingo Maurer) and straw totems that provide a more human sense of scale.
It may look different thanks to Meilichzon’s colour palette (a mix of deep blues, greens and reds that offer an Atlantic-coast take on seaside style) and the references to Neo-Basque architecture she has made from the shape of the bespoke sofas to an exquisite divide inspired by the form of the Itsasoan footbridge in nearby Guétary, but this grand space is still the beating heart of this hotel. All of its 72 rooms open out onto it.
Then there’s the bar that keeps the buzz of this space alive. Sitting at the back of the atrium and serving a reliably great cocktail menu (we suggest the ‘Citrus Time’, a zesty mix of gin, grapefruit, yuzu and Timut pepper cordial with tonic). The bar’s long counter is inspired by the architectural work of Eileen Gray and several ‘No.2’ bar stools – designed for Gray’s own home, the E 1027 villa, in 1928 – provide stylish places to perch.
Tear yourself away from the bar and piano lounge and the attention to detail continues. Those familiar with other hotels in the Experimental group will know that there are design threads, often informed by locale and history, that appear throughout every hotel. In Cowley Manor, the group’s Cotswolds venue, a connection to Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, sees playing cards appear on carpets and each door decorated with a knocker in the shape of a rabbit (albeit not white). Here in Biarritz, it’s shells that make regular appearances – once you know to look you will spot them cleverly referenced everywhere.
Inside the rooms, the colour palette of the atrium bar continues. Here though, amazing views (either of the coast and nearby lighthouse or Biarritz’s famous golf course) put the palette into context.
Away from the rooms, there’s also a heated outdoor pool, surrounded by loungers that encourage proper lounging – think plush, squishy daybeds that you could lose an afternoon reclining on. Plus, pass through the adjoining boutique shop and down the stairs and you enter the sanctuary that is the Experimental Biarritz’s Susanne Kaufmann & Alaena spa, with its treatment spaces and steam room.
Total relaxation can leave you peckish and, thankfully, the Frenchie Biarritz, under the watchful eye of chef Gregory Marchand, is a culinary delight. Much like Meilichzon’s interiors, Marchand has taken inspiration from Biarritz and the surroundings of the Basque region. ‘The menu,’ he says ‘is designed to welcome new people and mix cultures, perfectly suited to Biarritz.’
It is this welcoming quality alluded to by the Frenchie chef that is key to this hotel’s charm. It is glamorous but inclusive, luxurious yet warm. Ready for a new heyday. From £268 per room per night on a room-only basis, reginaexperimental.com
