Luxury dog-friendly hotels in L’Île d'Yeu, France

Small (at just 10 kilometres long), yet very significant, L’Île d'Yeu is a brightly shining beacon of untamed beauty, luring adventurers, beachgoers and serenity seekers alike off France’s Atlantic coast. Its rocky edges have the blustered, heather- and gorse-strewn feel of Celtic isles, but Riviera-worthy beaches lapped by turquoise waters are tucked away between the bulwarking gneiss promontories. While inland, moors, marshes and fields busy with wildflowers add a touch of English pastoral romanticism to the landscape, and the port towns, with their whitewashed houses, sweep you over to the Ioanian. All of this makes the perfect wide-open playspace for hiking, biking, horse riding, helicopter rides, sand-yachting and all manner of watersports, but there are also historic forts and castles (one of which starred in a Tintin book), upscale ateliers and dialled-down yoga and pilates sessions on the sand. A petite package with many treasures inside.