La Grande-Motte: France's retro-futurist seaside town near Montpellier
Built in the late 1960s and 1970s, the French coastal resort of La Grande-Motte features striking pyramid-shaped modernist architecture designed to keep French holidaymakers from heading to Spain's Costa Brava. The once unfashionable town is now enjoying a revival among a new generation.
About 30 minutes' drive from Montpellier on France's southern coast lies La Grande-Motte, a resort town built in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a French government initiative to stop holidaymakers travelling south to Spain's Costa Brava. It was one of several new beach towns created along a previously windswept, mosquito-plagued stretch of coastline between Montpellier and Perpignan, offered as an alternative to the Côte d'Azur.
The town's architecture was designed by Jean Balladur, who drew inspiration from ancient temples and Mesoamerican pyramids to imagine what the future might look like. As a result, the town is almost entirely free of rectangular blocks or right angles, with apartment buildings arranged in pyramid shapes and sweeping curves that give the impression of another planet.
Beach and landmarks
The town's main beach, at the area known as Point Zéro, earned a Blue Flag award in 2025 for its environmental management and water quality. Its Ferris wheel runs on solar power, and the beach features concrete sculptures by artist Joséphine Chevry, originally created as windbreaks and shade structures to help shape the dunes. Many are now partly buried in sand.
A shifting reputation
La Grande-Motte fell out of favour in the 1980s, seen by some as tacky. In 2014, fashion designer Simon Porte Jacquemus, who holidayed there as a child, created a collection and book paying tribute to the town, acknowledging its "trashy reputation" while calling it inspiring. According to the report, the town is now seeing renewed interest from the grandchildren of the original apartment buyers.
Visitors are recommended the vintage three-star Hotel Le Quetzal, notable for its distinctive 1970s design, along with several local restaurants. The town is also close to salt marshes and the 13th-century walled town of Aigues-Mortes.
