Off the sand, the tree-shaded lanes have just the right mix of lively cafes, art galleries and ice cream parlors. With their steeply pitched roofs and eyebrow dormer windows, the unpretentious 18th-century houses look like descendants of the traditional Viking longhouses. Fully rigged model schooners and clipper ships can be seen in many parlor windows.
For about 700 years until the mid-17th century, the Danes controlled Skane, a little fishtail-shaped peninsula that was once an important herring and produce market. Today, the idyllic towns sell understated Swedish chic to summer visitors.
high and low season
"Once the tennis is over in Bastad, the whole celebrity and Stockholm social scene moves down here for the Falsterbo Horse Show," said Catherine Ljungh of the Galleri Palm, around the corner from the buzzing sidewalk scene at the Kust Cafe in Falsterbo. "But then they head off to St. Tropez or wherever, and this is just a perfect summer town: the beach, barbecues, golf, families getting together."
A regular visitor agreed.
"Whoever oversaw the transition from fishing community to summer resort in the early 20th century certainly got it right," said Pierre Pelham of Mobile, Alabama, who with his wife, Eva, whose family is from Skane, spends the better part of every summer there. "If you head east of here along the coast, it's nothing but congestion."
Those looking for a happier kind of congestion should hit the dance floor at Badhytten, a flash point of youthful exuberance at the Skanor marina, a safe distance from the quiet village streets. This two-story club offers various scenes, from civilized cocktailing to frat-party rowdy. The terrace was a roiling sea of shoulder-length blond hair, spilling drinks and young women being picked up (literally).
The men wore tiny polo shirts that looked as if they'd been sewn on to their buff torsos. The women wore breezy backless linen dresses that might not have been sewn at all. It was like an Abercrombie & Fitch catalog brought to life and fueled by Absolut.
Tranquility was restored on the stroll back to town around 2am as the Swedish summer night worked its magic. A full moon hung low on the horizon to the south, while up north, the flame-colored sky showed that the sun had no intention of saying goodnight.
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