Gigaro, Côte d'Azur
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On the first of May, the French give one another a sprig of lily of the valley, a small white flower that wishes good fortune and a fresh start. On the quieter side of the Saint-Tropez peninsula, the hotel with the same name has built an entire holiday around the second part of that wish. Its guests come for the Mediterranean, certainly, but also to do something for themselves. That is an unusual ambition on a coast better known for lunches that become afternoons and evenings that end very late.
Lily of the Valley looks over Gigaro, where the coast gives way to the protected paths of Cap Lardier. Philippe Starck has arranged its buildings as a cluster of low houses stepping across the slope, blending warm stone, timber and more eccentric touches into the greenery. There are wide terraces and sea air, but the property stands above the beach rather than on it. Saint-Tropez is a drive away; the paths along the headland begin much closer. This is the peninsula with its volume turned down.
The real centre of the hotel is the Shape Club. Across two thousand square metres are a substantial gym, studios for coaching and Reformer Pilates, a heated pool long enough for proper lengths and a Nordic circuit of saunas, steam, cold plunge and even a snow shower. It is not merely a spa to visit once on a rainy day. The whole place makes it tempting to exercise in the morning, recover properly afterwards and still feel that the day has only just begun.
The structured programmes take that idea further. Guests can spend several days working towards a goal, from sport and detox to better ageing, with training, treatments and food organised around it. Others simply book a room and go to a class when they feel like one. The programmes cost extra; Lily is a luxury hotel, not a clinic. Its most persuasive trick is making a good habit feel less like an obligation.
Nor has Saint-Tropez been banished. A shuttle goes down to the hotel's beach club on Gigaro, where Pépé offers long Mediterranean lunches in season and La Brigantine serves Italian food by the sea for much of the year. Back on the hill, Vista provides dinner and, at times, music. Pilates in the morning need not prevent a very long lunch.
There is some fine print to the fresh start. The wellness programmes cost extra, the beach club welcomes people who are not staying at the hotel, and the steep drive means the sea is not a casual walk from every room. The spa and fitness facilities matter much more than a bustling hotel scene, and families will not find a conventional children's club. The bill is high, even before a programme is added. Still, unlike much of the peninsula's luxury market, the hotel remains open through winter, when the beach is less important and the Shape Club comes into its own.
A sprig of lily of the valley asks nothing of the person who receives it. The hotel asks a little more: perhaps a Pilates class, a walk along Cap Lardier and a cold plunge before lunch. It is a fresh start with exceptionally good meals, and no rule against spending the afternoon in the sun.
Hidden from the water
The buildings follow the contours of the hill and were designed to be invisible from the sea.
Philippe Starck split the hotel into several houses set into the slope above Gigaro, with planting over roofs and terraces so that the hillside still reads as pine and scrub. The buildings follow the contours of the hill and were designed to stay out of sight from the sea. Inside, polished marble and exposed concrete meet exotic woods and leather.
The Deluxe Sea View Suite, 72 to 80 m² for up to three guests, opens onto a covered terrace with the Mediterranean between the umbrella pines. Only four of the nine room and suite categories face the sea; the rest look over hills, gardens or the Shape Club. Size barely changes within a tier, so the view is the real choice.
The Pilates Reformer studio is one room among many in the Shape Club, which also holds a Technogym fitness room, group studios, a cryotherapy room and seven treatment rooms, one of them for two. Reformer classes appear on the weekly timetable beside yoga, boxing and sound healing, so a guest without a programme can still join one.
The hotel's beach club occupies one end of the Plage de Gigaro, where the sand meets the pine forest below the hotel. The hotel shuttle covers the distance all year. Pépé sits on the sand and La Brigantine has a terrace at the water's edge; both take bookings from outside, and the sunbeds can be reserved by anyone, so the beach is shared.
At a glance
Where
Colline Saint-Michel, boulevard Abel Faivre, quartier de Gigaro, 83420 La Croix-Valmer, Var; on the Saint-Tropez peninsula above the Plage de Gigaro, beside the protected Cap Lardier estate; La Môle airport 16 km, Toulon-Hyères airport 50 km, Nice Côte d'Azur airport 110 km, Les Arcs-Draguignan station 48 km; helicopter from Nice
Why this one
2,000 m² of training and recovery.
Winter is part of the plan.
A beach club below the hill.
The Edit Notes
The rooms and suites sit in houses on the hill; the pool suites do not. All seven, from the 86 m² Loft and the 95 m² Gigaro to the 210 m² Pool Suite Villa for six, stand below the hotel, facing the beach club, each with a private garden and pool. Villa W, 250 m², takes the opposite position, in the park with a 180-degree view across the bay. For a stay planned around the beach, the pool suites change the geography more than any sea-view category does.
A room gives full use of the Shape Club; a programme is something else. The four themes, weight loss, detox, sport and better ageing, run for four, seven, ten or fourteen days, with full board, treatments each day, coaching and a Wellness Advisor, while the room is booked on top. The week opens with measurements such as bioimpedance and a strength and mobility test, which shape the training plan. What the programmes describe are aims of a supervised stay, not medical results, and they do not replace a doctor.
The Shape Club sells day visits and memberships of one month or more to people staying elsewhere, and all three restaurants take outside bookings. The hotel is therefore less sealed off than its position on the hill suggests, particularly at the beach in summer. The class timetable also leaves the building: early trekking on the coastal paths, mountain biking, seaside sessions and beach yoga sit alongside Reformer and boxing. The landscape of Cap Lardier is part of the training rather than the view from it.
Opening all year does not mean the same hotel all year. Vista and its bar carry on through the cold months, the bar trading its summer reed roof for a fire. La Brigantine closes for the depth of winter and Pépé works only in the warm season, so the beach turns into a place to walk rather than to lunch. The shuttle to Gigaro and La Croix-Valmer keeps running, and the four-day masterclasses, group stays on a single wellness theme, are scheduled outside summer.
The price question
The money buys a Starck-designed hotel above one of the peninsula's quieter beaches, a large and serious fitness and recovery club that comes with the room, and a house that keeps working through winter. It does not buy a sea view in every category, a beach outside the door or a programme: the structured weeks are charged on top of the room. Choose the category by its view and decide in advance whether the stay is a holiday with training or a programme with a room.
Book it for a week of training, treatment and long Mediterranean meals with a quiet beach below, in spring, autumn or winter as much as in high summer. Look elsewhere for Saint-Tropez on foot, for a children's club, or for a hotel where the sand starts at the room door.
La Réserve Ramatuelle
On the same peninsula above the bay near Cap Camarat: 27 rooms and suites, villas, and Spa Nescens with reformer Pilates studios; closed in winter.
Cheval Blanc St-Tropez
On the Bay of Saint-Tropez among pines: 32 rooms and suites and the four-bedroom Villa Riviera, with private access to the sea.
The Extra Edit
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