Le Domaine du Mas de Pierre

Saint-Paul-de-Vence has spent decades persuading visitors to look at art. Galleries occupy its old lanes, and the Fondation Maeght stands among the pines beyond the walls. Down the hill, Le Domaine du Mas de Pierre has made an installation that is considerably easier to understand: a beach. There is real sand, a turquoise lagoon, waterfalls, palms and a slide, all of it some distance from the Mediterranean. It is an unusual sight in a village better known for painting than paddling.

The arrangement is more useful than the joke suggests. The walled village is close enough for a morning among the galleries, while the hotel grounds offer something to do when children have had enough of looking. A shuttle serves Saint-Paul, subject to its timetable, and the paths through the estate offer another kind of outing: olive trees, gardens and places to stop without anyone asking you to admire a masterpiece. This is not an attempt to bring the coast inland. It is a way of enjoying the inland Riviera without constantly driving back to it.

Seventy-six rooms and suites occupy a collection of Provençal bastides, some old, others built to sit comfortably beside them. The decoration belongs to the generous, traditional school of southern French hotels, with warm fabrics and terraces opening to the greenery. The adults-only Bastide des Fleurs has its own pool and a more sheltered mood. Elsewhere, the estate makes room for families with a children's club and the lagoon's shallow water. Two sorts of holiday coexist without requiring everyone to share the same lounger.

The swimming choices go well beyond the sand. A twenty-five-metre outdoor pool is intended for proper lengths; within the two-thousand-square-metre spa, a heated indoor pool, counter-current bicycles and thermal facilities offer another afternoon's occupation. Children have restricted access to the spa in summer, when the lagoon is their more natural territory. This is the rare inland hotel where the question of whether to leave the grounds can genuinely take some time to answer.

Food follows the estate's two speeds. La Table de Pierre offers an ambitious dinner, while more relaxed eating can be found without dressing the evening as an occasion. Breakfast is another opportunity to stay in the gardens instead of rushing uphill. The hotel's strength is the ease with which a stay can alternate between a cultural morning, a long lunch and an afternoon in the water, with no obligation to choose one sort of Riviera holiday.

That breadth comes with compromises. The lagoon is deliberately artificial, and anyone dreaming of open sea will still need a car. A large estate can feel busy when families and events converge, while service and dining reservations need more planning than the informal setting implies. The rooms vary across the bastides, so outlook and proximity to the livelier pools matter. The price is for a resort with an inland beach, not a small village inn.

Up in Saint-Paul, the galleries change their exhibitions and the village fills with visitors who have come to look. Down the hill, the sand stays where it was put, ready for people who have decided that an afternoon need not be improved by another painting.