Villa Arnaga, Neo-Basque villa in Cambo-les-Bains, France

Villa Arnaga is a Neo-Basque villa built from 1903 to 1906 by architect Joseph-Albert Tournaire for Edmond Rostand in Cambo-les-Bains. Its facade has a white upper band with dark red half-timbering and red shutters above a lower band of exposed cream stone, with a dark red double door under a wooden pergola. A narrower wing on the right repeats the half-timbering, and conical evergreen shrubs and flower beds line the base.

Edmond Rostand, ill with pleurisy after rehearsals for L'Aiglon, settled in Cambo in 1900 and bought land on the hill where the Arraga stream runs. He had architect Joseph-Albert Tournaire build the villa from March 1903, and the family moved in in June 1906; there he wrote Chantecler. After his death in 1918 the furnishings were dispersed, and the commune bought the estate in 1960 to create the Edmond Rostand museum.

Rostand altered the Basque word Arraga, meaning "place of stone", to Arnaga for its sound. The interior was conceived as a stage set: English hall, Chinese smoking room, Empire study, Louis XVI dining room, with murals by Gaston La Touche and library decorations by Clémentine-Hélène Dufau. The museum holds over 5,000 objects, including Gérard Depardieu's César for Cyrano de Bergerac, displayed in the library.

The estate lies off the D932 towards Larressore, away from the town centre, so allow time to walk between the house and the two gardens. The French garden with its three ponds and the Poets' Corner lies east of the villa, the English garden west. The park covers 15 hectares, with a long canal ending at a pergola.

The library grille was forged by the Parisian ironworkers who were the parents of Boris Vian. In the same room hangs the César awarded to Gérard Depardieu in 1991 for Cyrano de Bergerac, which he gave to the museum.