Behind the seafront promenade, Le Touquet hides one of the finest collections of early 20th-century resort architecture in northern France. The streets are shaded by pines planted as part of the original town plan, and between them stand villas in a range of styles — Art Deco, Norman half-timbering, Anglo-Norman hybrid, and the occasional mock-Tudor flourish from the English residents who wintered here.
The most rewarding streets to wander are the Avenue du Verger and the roads around it, where large private villas sit behind hedges and wrought-iron gates. The Royal Picardy hotel, a 1929 Art Deco landmark that once dominated the seafront, is gone now — demolished in the late 1960s — but the residential streets give a clear sense of what made the resort fashionable in its prime. Pick up a walking map from the tourist office and follow the signposted circuit.