Villa de l'Étang Blanc

Villa de l'Étang Blanc is a charming family-run villa on the Landes coast, housing a Michelin-starred restaurant and a 3-star boutique hotel. Magali (hotelier) and chef David Sulpice bought the villa in 2008 after six years abroad; the restaurant earned its first Michelin star in 2019 and the hotel comprises six individually styled rooms. Set in a peaceful nature reserve with a wooded park, the villa offers a terrace for warm months; in cooler seasons the dining room provides pond views and tables by the fireplace. Contemporary, author-style cuisine focuses on local sea and farm produce. The restaurant presents a single tasting menu of two starters, two mains, an optional cheese course and a dessert, changing with season and market arrivals. Chef David Sulpice began cooking at 15 and trained with starred chefs; he composes highly graphic plates with an explosive touch of flavour that forms his signature. La Table Étoilée is the house tasting menu; a signature dish is cuisse de pigeonneau from Ferme Dublanc with sweet potato, pralin and spiced peanuts. The kitchen emphasises terroir produce — asparagus, foie gras, duck, regional pork — sources ingredients within a 15 km radius bought the same morning from local producers and fishers, collaborates with named local farms and the local fish auction, receives seafood from L'Accalmie (Capbreton), and operates a summer champagne bar-cabin presenting Maisons Henriot and Billecart-Salmon on the pond edge.