But what is it to be a millennial?
I came to Hossegor from Bordeaux when he had just got dark and it was raining with that comfort with which it rains in places where it rains.
jo&joe , which is the name of the protagonist of our story, appeared as Manderley: little by little and in the shadows. However, this Basque-landaise-style mansion is much less disturbing: nothing with a Yellow mehari and several flamingos at the door it can be.
Suitcase in hand and direct to reception. Reception rhymes with neon. Here the guest is received under neon pink-orange day (I'll check that later) and night. DNI, basic rules of schedules and card for the room. Wow, there's one more card: is loaded with money to spend at the restaurant.
There is a lot of information: schedules for yoga classes, surfing, tide and temperature data, pizzerias ... I see few people, but they all smile. I'm the only one who seems altered by the rain and the neon light.
They escort me to the room. I open the door. Wait a minute: what is this? It is not a bed, it is not a bunk bed, it is not a piece of furniture and it is everything at the same time. I'm going to sleep under a surfboard. What if it falls? I, who never surf for fear, cannot die crushed by a board out of the sea. Respite. I look. I feel I don't know where.
I survey the room with the attitude (and without the coat) of Benedict Cumberbatch in sherlock . There are two spaces for the toilet: a shower and a toilet, very French.
Here elegance knows no ages or prices. The central space is occupied by a raw wood structure that is, at the same time, a bunk bed and a support platform. It's full of plugs and USB and the wifi is supersonic: comfort is that too.
As I begin to adjust, I notice something: the bed had seemed ascetically Scandinavian to me, and that was because I had no sheets. I do not see them. They're not here. I have to go down for them. I ask a girl with rather enviable weathered blonde waves at reception and she places a set of sheets and towels in both of my hands. Suddenly I'm on T malory towers . I obediently go up to my room and make my bed. The night before I had slept in Les Sources de Caudalie. Resilience this is called.
The bed is already made and a certain feeling of home has just taken over. the room that, it must be said loud and clear, is beautiful.
I take a shower, I dress in the least urban I have and I download the app of the place. I read that Quicksilver is involved in the project and that there are rooms from €19 per night. After playing for a while with the mobile, I go down to dinner.
The room that, it must be said loud and clear, is beautiful
As I have (we have, I am accompanied) our own bottle of wine, we are going to eat the one they call 'the kitchen'. We ordered a couple of dishes (you can have a good dinner for €10) and we brought them to a space that feels more like part of a (good) villa than a kitchen. It is a photogenic space with a boho air (the French continue to love this adjective) and surfer.
We see a group of people lying on huge striped sofas watching a series on a screen. It's not people watching TV: they see a series wrapped in quilts and in absolute silence.
After witnessing this community experience, we sat down to eat. There are more people dining and they invite us to join them. Everyone is charming, relaxed and handsome.
SECOND DAY
I haven't slept so well in a long time. Here it is quiet, the mattress is excellent and there is much more space than it seems.
I miss a closet, but I've been keeping clothes in closets for 45 years now. I fold it, order it and use it like this. Let's unlearn.
I'm going to explore the area, so I need a good breakfast. I'm in France: I want butter. I have baguette, butter, juice and coffee for €4 in the main common area of Jo&Joe : an interesting cross between restaurant, coworking and terrace. It's cheerful, it has plugs.
We visited Hossegor , a town-mecca for surf lovers. In summer and during competitions it welcomes tens of thousands of people , but these days it is very quiet. You can park on all the beaches, there is a place in all the places in the town.
We visited the beach bar Lou Cabana _(952 Boulevard Front de Mer) _; we are going to eat oysters at the end of the lagoon, in La Poupe _(Avenue du Tour du Lac) _; we go shopping ( bensimon , toujours) to the Place Louis Pasteur.
We also visit the surroundings: Capbreton, Saubion… Everything here is discreet, elegant, connected with nature. If you want to see and be seen, do not come. If you want to be and enjoy, yes.
At night, at Joe & Joe, we all know each other. We greet each other and discuss the day. We are part of the same tribe.
Sociability, dear hotels, should not be forced. A social hotel is not because it calls itself that. This one doesn't even do it and gets it. This place can be lived privately or communally and both scenarios are respected and natural.
THIRD AND LAST DAY
I go down to reception after taking a shower to ask for a hairdryer. I repeat the question in case my French is limited. There is no dryer. They look at me with the same face with which they would look at me if I had said: "S'il vous plaît, the Holy Grail, I want to bring it up to my room?"
Hossegor's millennial surfers don't dry their hair ; Maybe that's why they have those long hair. Lesson learned. I am a specimen of Generation X infiltrated among Millennials and, you know what? Nobody cares: not me.
I'm not the only one either: I read that here 30% of guests are over 30 years old. The millennial label is, provocation alert, something much less important than they would have us believe. has more to do with lifestyle than with age.
If being a millennial is, simplifying, live hyperconnected, wear a sweatshirt with a message, cultivate digital nomadism, avoid sugars, travel to Alentejo instead of Prague , drink ugly colored thick juices and go to meetings (many organized by me) in sneakers, I can be. A friend of your father, too.
Sociability, dear hotels, should not be forced
Enough thinking, we must take action. I want to continue getting to know the area, although first I have to finish off an article. Downstairs to the restaurant-dining room-work space and open the laptop. Okay, before I share a photo on Instagram.
I notice that there are several of us who are typing (hello, Bleisure) more or less concentrated. There is even a group of people gathered And they don't look like millennials. I'm not alone.
After giving the 'Save As' I go out again to explore the surroundings. The beaches are endless, the cafes are full of stragglers who refuse to leave summer behind.
Missing is the classic walk through a French parapharmacy to buy micellar water and various balms and a good meal before returning to Spain. We entered for the second time Tante Jeanne _(45 Avenue Paul Lahary) _, we liked the first one and took a bowl of sea bass and salmon with colorful vegetables.
poke bowl veggie
After all day devoted to landism, my new favorite sport, I go back to Jo&Joe to say goodbye and pick up my suitcase. These days I have been the oldest person in the entire hotel/hostel/private villa but that has been irrelevant. I already know their codes and I have camouflaged myself perfectly between staff and other guests.
After two nights at the Jo&Joe (opened on June 2 and the last great adventure of the Accor group) I learned that hotels have to unlearn, what that the ways of traveling, like those of working, have no choice but to be reviewed and that doesn't happen by just installing plugs everywhere (thanks, always), but by changing the paradigm.
Places like this are bothering to change it and this effort has just been recognized with a major award from a French strategy and design outlet, the Grand Prix Grand Strategies du design 2017.
Maybe we are overestimating the details
I also learned that we are overestimating the details: sometimes the macro matters more than the micro. A good bed, silence, a powerful shower and a fair price they are more valuable than the chocolates on the pillow and scented amenities from Grasse. The latter, without the former, angers.
Jo&Joe does very well what he wants to do well. There is total consistency between objective, values and message. My time there also helped me taste this area of eastern France and be very clear that I want to return now, without waiting for summer.
Moral: after two days in this neo-hostel? hotel? my house in Hossegor?, sleeping (wonderfully) in my clean white bed made by me and in a room without cupboards, I learned that each trip has to be a kilometer zero, with its corresponding portion of surprise and clumsiness. At Joe&Joe I unlearned a lot and had more fun. If only I could have dried my hair...
Every trip has to be a zero kilometer