Plage de la Bouillabaisse, Côte d'Azur
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The beach below Cheval Blanc St-Tropez is called the Plage de la Bouillabaisse, after the fish stew of the Provençal coast, and the name suits it better than anyone could have planned. A proper bouillabaisse arrives as two dishes, side by side: a platter of fish, carved at the table, and beside it the saffron broth, kept hot, with garlic croutons and rouille. Some mix the two in a deep bowl, others keep them apart. Nobody is asked to choose.
Saint-Tropez usually does ask. Its famous beaches lie outside the town, at the end of a slow summer road, and a day on the sand and a great dinner tend to happen in different places. Cheval Blanc is the only hotel in Saint-Tropez with a beach of its own, and it keeps the sand and one of the finest kitchens in France a few steps apart, a short walk from the harbour.
The house is small, about thirty rooms and suites in a villa under the pines, and quieter than its address suggests. Jean-Michel Wilmotte dressed it in azure and white, Provençal without the postcard, and it feels like a private house on the shore rather than a stage. Children have a club of their own, and the adults have the calm that comes with it. Beyond the gate, the town performs. Inside, very little does.
The day is the broth: long, warm and unhurried. It can be spent almost entirely on the sand, with the sea a few steps away, a heated pool by the beach for cooler mornings, and the boats sliding in and out of the harbour across the water. Lunch is on La Terrasse, in the breeze off the bay. The afternoon ends at the Guerlain spa, or with a stroll into town and back. From the beach, Saint-Tropez is something to watch rather than queue for.
The evening is the fish. La Vague d'Or, Arnaud Donckele's restaurant, cooks the same coast that fills a bouillabaisse, moving between the sea and the land of Provence and taking both as far as cooking can go. For guests, dinner there is a night in rather than a night out, with no car, no traffic and the beach still warm a few steps away.
The pleasures are concentrated, and so are the drawbacks. With so few rooms, high summer needs booking early. The beach looks onto a working bay, busy with boats in July and August rather than an empty horizon, and the town beyond is as crowded as its reputation. The prices are steep even by Saint-Tropez standards. And this is a summer house only, open from spring to early autumn.
A bouillabaisse is the rare dish that refuses to make anyone choose between the soup and the fish. On the beach that carries its name, Cheval Blanc serves the day the same way.
A snow shower
Beside the hammam in the Guerlain spa, a few steps from the beach.
The Maison's stretch of the Plage de la Bouillabaisse is reserved for resident guests, so the white-and-blue parasols belong to a few dozen rooms rather than to day visitors. From the loungers the view crosses the bay to the village and its harbour. A pontoon runs out into the water for boating, and dogs, welcome elsewhere in the house, stay off the sand.
The Sea Suite, 45 m², is the first category with a living room separate from the bedroom, and it has two terraces with sun loungers, both looking over the Bay of Saint-Tropez. A dressing room and a bathroom with bath and walk-in shower complete it. It can connect to a Superior Sea Room, which turns two bay-facing keys into one family apartment.
La Vague d'Or opens only in the evening, with Arnaud Donckele leading a kitchen of 34 cooks and Thierry Di Tullio running the room. Its two menus, Run Away Together and Epicurean Adventure, draw on named suppliers: Bodo, a herb gardener, Sydney, a grower, and the fishermen working the coast. The tables are laid in white, with blue glass catching the light.
La Terrasse sits under century-old pines with the sea in front, and it carries the day before La Vague d'Or takes the evening. Breakfast here is Arnaud Donckele's too, served course after course. At lunch the Under the Pines set menu and the Confidence menu cover Provence by land and sea, with a separate Children's Corner menu.
At a glance
Where
Plage de la Bouillabaisse, 83990 Saint-Tropez, on the beach at the entrance to the town, a few minutes from the village centre; Var, French Riviera
Why this one
Kept for resident guests.
La Vague d'Or on the grounds.
Terraces facing the bay.
The Edit Notes
At Cheval Blanc the category name is the view. Rooms with 'Sea' in the title face the bay; the Courtyard Classic Room opens onto a terrace over the tree-lined courtyard, the Ground Floor Superior Room sits under the pines, and the Pool View Junior Suite looks over the water of the pool. The Prestige Sea Room has its bay balcony on the first floor, reached by outdoor stairs only. In a house this small, paying for the word 'Sea' is the upgrade that matters.
La Vague d'Or serves dinner only, and not every night of the week. On its night off, La Terrasse holds the Soirées Riviera: traditional Provençal cooking, bouillabaisse among it, with live music under the pines. A stay of two or three nights can take in both, but a single night booked on the wrong date can miss the reason for coming. The table at La Vague d'Or should be reserved with the room, not after arrival.
The house opened in 1936 as La Résidence de la Pinède and reopened as Cheval Blanc in 2019 after a renovation by Jean-Michel Wilmotte. What survived the change is a collection of work by the ceramicist Roger Capron, which the old hotel had kept for decades. Rather than retire it, the new owners spread his pieces through rooms, suites and corridors. The continuity lies in the clay, not in the colour scheme.
Villa Riviera is a separate proposition from the hotel's rooms: 400 m² over three floors in a Provençal garden by the landscape designer Jean Mus, with its own access, four bedrooms for eight guests and a private pool facing the bay. Below ground sit a screening room and a studio for fitness or massage; a private chef cooks on request. It is let whole, so it suits one family or group, not a couple wanting more space.
The price question
The money buys a rare combination on this coast: a beach kept for resident guests inside the town limits, a heated pool beside it, and one of the most ambitious kitchens in Provence a short walk from the room, with no car involved. It does not buy space at entry level, a bay view in every category or an empty sea. Pay for a 'Sea' category and book La Vague d'Or with the room.
Book it for a short summer stay that runs from the sand to one or two dinners at La Vague d'Or, in a room facing the bay. Look elsewhere for a wild beach, a quiet horizon or a hotel open through the winter.
Byblos Saint-Tropez
In the heart of the village on avenue Paul Signac: 86 rooms and suites around a pool, with the Les Caves du Roy nightclub on site.
Lily of the Valley
Above the Plage de Gigaro at La Croix-Valmer, beside the protected Cap Lardier estate: rooms of 35 to 105 m² in separate houses, each with a large private terrace, and a beach club.
The Extra Edit
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