Arcachon was a fishing village as early as the 16th century, and then became a holiday location for the European aristocracy and a reputed seaside resort as from the 19th century thanks to Arcachon's natural assets (bay, forest, ocean) and to its climate. The extravagant Arcachon homes of the the “Winter Town” bear witness to those times. Arcachon is also one of Europe's leading oyster-farming centres. The sights to see are; villas in the “Summer and Winter towns”; Arcachon's Neo-Gothic church of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Port; Mauresque Gardens; the casino in the fairy-tale former Château Deganne.
Whether they are named after famous men, operas or their characters, the 215 villas nestled amidst the greenery of the Winter Town district of Arcachon represent a fantastic testimony to Arcachon's bourgeois seaside resort architecture of the second half of the 19th century. Arcachon's villas offer a genuine anthology of rubble stone and brick bond designs, of wood cut out in lace-like patterns, of balconies with worked railings, of gable or hipped roofs, of donjon-like turrets and outside stairways. All genres and influences combine joyfully : Arcachonais, Basque, Moorish, or Anglo-Chinese. These Arcachon houses are full of inventiveness.