81 boulevard de Gigaro, Var
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Every summer, people who want for nothing at home come to La Croix-Valmer to rough it. They sleep in trees and walk to the beach with a towel over one shoulder, and they go home convinced that money has not changed them a bit. Château de Valmer, an old family house among organic vines where the bay of Saint-Tropez runs out, makes this possible. It offers the simple life, with a gastronomic restaurant and a spa discreetly in the background.
What keeps the act charming rather than absurd is that the simplicity has real roots. The Montloin-Rocchietta family has owned the place since just after the war, and it started life as a family guest house before it grew into a hotel of forty-four rooms, suites and villas. The vines around it produce the estate's own rosé, and the manners are still those of a family house rather than a grand hotel.
The tree houses are where the camping fantasy reaches its peak. Two little cabins hang in century-old oaks above the vineyard, with no television and frogs for music at sunset. The smaller one, the Écureuils, sits at the top of its oak around a canopy bed. The larger, the Lapins, has a sitting room and a little room of bunk beds, which makes it the family one: the children get the bunks and nobody argues. Few campsites send breakfast up to the branches. This one does.
Then comes the walk to the sea. From the château, a path lined with tall palms runs four hundred metres down through the gardens to the beach of Gigaro, facing the Îles d'Hyères. It feels wonderfully like a campsite stroll to the shore, except that the family's other hotel, La Pinède Plage, keeps a private beach and a table for lunch at the bottom.
Back up the path, the comforts nobody mentions at dinner parties are waiting. A large heated pool sits in the gardens, and the spa opens onto the park, with an indoor pool for days when the mistral blows. The camp kitchen is La Palmeraie, a gastronomic restaurant beneath the palms, cooking with vegetables from the estate's organic garden, and a relaxed bistro takes over on simpler nights. The house rosé, from the vines beyond the terrace, is the one thing campers and château owners have always agreed on.
The roughing it has its genuine moments. Saint-Tropez is at the other end of the bay, which in July can mean a slow drive, and the smaller tree house is barely fifteen square metres and no place for anyone uneasy about heights. Children are welcome everywhere except the spa, which makes it a natural choice for families.
Back home, the story will be about the night in the tree and the walk to the beach with a towel. The spa and the gastronomic dinner rarely make it into the retelling, least of all the version guests tell themselves.
Next door
La Pinède Plage, the sister hotel 400 metres away, began in 1952 as a few modest bungalows on the shore. Today it is where the château's palm avenue ends: a private beach, a waterfront restaurant and a bar facing the sea.
The Cabane des Lapins is built into an oak at the edge of the vineyard, with a large terrace looking over the vines and the hills. Inside, in 36 m², are a living room, a double bedroom, a separate room of bunk beds and a bathroom. Its smaller neighbour, the Cabane des Ecureuils, is for two only.
From the château a long avenue of tall palms runs through the estate towards the sea, with the organic vines on either side. It ends 400 metres on at Gigaro beach, where La Pinède Plage, the family's sister hotel, opens its private beach and its waterfront restaurant to the château's guests. Beach bags and towels travel on foot.
The spa occupies 500 m² overlooking the park, and its heated indoor pool runs along a wall of tall windows with loungers beside it. Around it are five treatment rooms using Clarins products, a jacuzzi, sauna, hammam, a fitness room facing the aromatic garden and a nail salon. The spa is for adults only.
The gastronomic restaurant takes its name from the century-old palm grove it stands in, and dinner is served on a terrace edged with a stone balustrade. The menu follows the organic garden through the season: vegetables, herbs, fruit and edible flowers. The estate's rosé, picked by hand from the organic vines, is on the list.
At a glance
Where
81 boulevard de Gigaro, 83420 La Croix-Valmer, Var; on the Saint-Tropez peninsula among vineyards and fruit trees, 400 m from Gigaro beach, 16 km (about 25 minutes) from Saint-Tropez; Toulon-Hyères airport 54 km, Nice Côte d'Azur airport 110 km, Hyères station 54 km, Toulon station 71 km
Why this one
Two tree houses above the vines.
A 400-metre avenue to Gigaro beach.
Organic vegetables and the estate's rosé.
The Edit Notes
The Cabane des Ecureuils sits at the top of a hundred-year-old oak: 15 m², one bedroom with a desk, a shower room and a terrace over the vines, for two. The Cabane des Lapins, 36 m², takes four, with a living room, a double bedroom, a room of bunk beds and a large terrace. Both are reached by outside stairs. A family that wants the garden instead of the branches can look at Le Cabanon, a two-bedroom house with kitchen and fig-shaded garden.
The palm avenue leads 400 metres down to Gigaro beach, where La Pinède Plage, the sister hotel, opens its private beach to guests of the château. Lunch on the sand means La Pinède's restaurant, with grilled fish and a view of the Îles d'Or; it has its own table booking, separate from the château's restaurants. Kayaks, paddle boards and pedal boats go out from the same beach, and the coastal path towards Cap Lardier starts there too.
Both restaurants stand in the palm grove but serve different evenings: La Palmeraie is the gastronomic table built on the organic garden, La Bastide a relaxed bistro reworking Mediterranean classics. Each is booked separately. For a stay of three or four nights, one dinner at La Palmeraie and the rest at La Bastide or on the beach is the natural rhythm. Lunch at the château is Le Jardin, under acacia and chestnut trees between the vines and the pool.
The château is seasonal. It shuts after the autumn, and in November 2026 the site simply promised a return next spring, without dates. Its October programmes show the season running at least to mid-October, the gentler time for the coastal paths and for the drive to Saint-Tropez, 16 km away. Families should know that the spa is reserved for adults; children have the heated outdoor pool, the park and the beach at La Pinède Plage instead.
The price question
The money buys a family-run estate where vines, a palm grove, a gastronomic table and a beach all sit within a short walk, and the rare option of a night in a tree. It does not buy a beach of the château's own or a year-round address: the sand belongs to the sister hotel, the spa admits only adults, and the house closes for the winter. The honest comparison is a seaside hotel at Gigaro plus dinners driven to.
Book it for a summer week with children, built around the tree house for four or the Cabanon, the outdoor pool and the beach at La Pinède, with one dinner at La Palmeraie. Couples wanting the spa every day and evenings in Saint-Tropez, 16 km away, are better placed in town.
Villa Marie Saint-Tropez
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Hôtel La Ponche
Twenty-one rooms, four apartments and a house in the old village of Saint-Tropez, above the cove of La Ponche, with a restaurant terrace beside the sea and a bar long associated with Boris Vian and Brigitte Bardot.
The Extra Edit
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