Hacienda White's La Plage Gives the French Riviera a Sahel Address

The French have a phrase, prendre son temps. To take one's time. Nowhere wears it better than the Côte d'Azur, where fishing boats bob lazily in a harbour of honey-coloured façades, striped parasols throw patches of shade across ivy-wrapped verandas, and the hours are measured differently, often by what arrives at the table: grilled rougets, still-warm socca, and crisp glasses of Provence rosé. It's a ritual repeated every summer from Menton to Saint-Tropez, and remarkably, that Mediterranean conviviality has begun to appear somewhere much closer to home: La Plage by La Maison Ani at Hacienda White by Palm Hills on Egypt’s North Coast.

Originally launched on Dubai’s Palm West Beach as Maison de la Plage, the côtier concept quickly became known amongst the city’s serial beach lunchers for its table-spilling spreads and soundtracks that have a habit of turning a three-hour affair into a full-blown summer fling. Now, under the La Plage by La Maison Ani name, Chef Izu Ani and Fundamental Hospitality’s French-Mediterranean recipe for losing track of time is landing inside Palm Hill’s crowning coastal jewel, Hacienda White; a place with its own long-standing relationship with late lunches and even later nights—from sandy tables at Galambo and beach parties that go on from 2PM until late at KIKI’s to La Plage’s own takeover of the destination’s U9 Beach.

Rather than being just a beachside restaurant that smells faintly of citrus or a casual place to drop by after your daily dalliance with the sea, the world-class destination—much like most of Palm Hills’ summer portfolio—is designed around the full arc of a Sahel day: mornings begin with the Mediterranean just beyond the table, afternoons stretch somewhere between daybeds and daydreams, and as the sun drops, cicadas compete with the clink of wine glasses as a procession of Mediterranean plates begins - whole grilled fish still carrying the memory of the sea, handmade pasta twirled slowly between conversations, and seafood platters designed for reaching across the table, all shaped by seasonal ingredients that keep one foot firmly planted on the coast beneath it.

And, of course, like any good Riviera address, La Plage isn't built around a single meal so much as a recurring cast of characters, each drawn in by a different chapter of Palm Hills’ summer calendar: you have Lively Lunch for the sun-chasers, Sunset Sessions for the golden-hour devotees, and a rotating programme of seasonal events for everyone in between.

In many ways, Palm Hills isn't introducing the French Riviera to Sahel through La Plage so much as reminding both coastlines that they've always spoken the same language. One simply says prendre son temps; the other has always known that leaving the beach too early is rarely the right decision.