1100 chemin de Val Rian, Var
Rate on request
No payment now. A room preference is a request, not guaranteed availability. Personal confirmation within 24 hours.
Pampelonne is the most famous beach in France, and in July it behaves like it. Beach clubs trade music across the sand, lunch runs on into the late afternoon, and somewhere a magnum is being carried to a table with some ceremony. The best view of all this is not from a sunbed. It is from the hills of Ramatuelle above the bay, where Villa Marie stands in three hectares of pines and the only sound left is the cicadas.
Getting there is half the effect. The road climbs out of the traffic into the pines until the beach has become a pale line far below, and at the top stands a villa of forty-five rooms. Powder-pink and ochre walls meet fuchsia fabrics, much of the furniture came over from Italy, and although every corner would survive a photograph, nothing looks arranged for one.
Every room has a balcony, terrace or loggia, but not every one faces the sea, and the rooms to ask for are those that keep the bay in sight. The Pampelonne room has a balcony facing the beach it is named after, close enough to make out the parasols and far enough not to hear a thing. It is the best seat on the peninsula, and nobody has to fight for it.
By day, the house answers the beach clubs one by one. Instead of rows of sunbeds, there is a pool carved out of the hillside rock, a celadon lagoon among the pines, with a bar called Bellini & Bikini, a name that doubles as the dress code. Instead of a DJ, the Pure Altitude spa offers two treatment rooms in a small pavilion that smells of pine and jasmine, using the family's own skincare made from alpine plants.
Dinner at the Dolce Vita is generous Mediterranean cooking, served under a glass roof or out among the trees: fish of the day, a lemon soufflé worth saving room for, and the fish soup with rouille, which is the dish to order. Down on the bay the night is only just beginning. Up here it has already settled into conversation.
The house belongs to the Sibuet family of Megève, who have always preferred building houses to running hotels, and many of the guests are regulars who follow them from the chalets of Les Fermes de Marie in winter to the pines of Ramatuelle in summer. The distance has its practical side. The village is a shuttle ride away and the beaches a short drive, so nothing is within walking distance of the action, and the house opens only from May to October. It is a house for couples and families who want Saint-Tropez in view rather than underfoot.
Most visitors spend their summer trying to get closer to Pampelonne. At Villa Marie the idea is to look down on it, which on a July afternoon is by far the better position.
Mountain skincare
The spa works with Pure Altitude, the Sibuet family's own skincare line from Megève, made with extracts of mountain plants: alpine botany, used on the Mediterranean.
The pool is set into the natural rock above the sea, under the pines, and it is heated, which matters in May and October. Bellini & Bikini, the pool bar, serves from the morning until the aperitif, and lunch comes to the loungers or the gardens: salads, club sandwiches, pasta of the day. The pool, like the spa, is kept for hotel guests.
Dinner is served every evening of the season, either under the glass roof of the dining room or on the terrace among the pines, where the bay stays in view until the light goes. The cooking leans to Provence and southern Italy: the day's catch, citrus, garden herbs, a lemon soufflé to finish. Half board can be chosen at booking; a children's menu exists.
No two rooms are decorated alike: Jocelyne Sibuet mixed antique and baroque furniture, much of it found in Italy, with gilded headboards, printed fabrics and shell mirrors. Several categories have an open-plan bathroom with a standalone bath in the room itself, which is worth knowing before sharing. Every room has a bathtub and a balcony, terrace or loggia; sizes run from 26 to 60 m².
The spa occupies a small pavilion in the garden, its walls covered in shells and its air scented with pine, rose and jasmine. Treatments use Pure Altitude, the family's mountain-plant skincare: a hot shell massage, an ice treatment for the legs, an after-sun ritual with neroli balm, facials. It opens every day of the season for hotel guests; booking ahead is strongly advised.
At a glance
Where
1100 chemin de Val Rian, 83350 Ramatuelle, Var; on the hill above the Bay of Pampelonne, about 3 km from Saint-Tropez; Pampelonne beaches around 3 km (the home page says 4 km). From Saint-Tropez, the Route des Plages towards Ramatuelle, then chemin de Val de Rian for about 1 km
Why this one
Pampelonne in view, not in earshot.
Heated, under pines, guests only.
Dolce Vita, under glass or the pines.
The Edit Notes
Every room has a balcony, terrace or loggia, but not every one looks at the sea. The Classic, Colombier, Villa, Prestige and Junior Suite categories face the patio or the pine forest; the Prestige room's Italian-style loggia looks onto the garden, not the bay. For Pampelonne in view, book a Suite or one of the named rooms: the Pampelonne room in pink and fuchsia, the Canoubiers junior suite with its loggia-style balcony, or Cap Camarat and Cap Taillat.
Saint-Tropez is about three kilometres away and nothing lies within easy walking distance. The hotel's private shuttle runs during the day and drops guests at Place des Lices, a short walk from the port; the beaches are a short drive. Since the shuttle is described as a daytime service, an evening in the village needs a car, a taxi or a word with the concierge about the return. Parking at the hotel is private but uncovered.
Villa Marie opens only from May to October; out of season the family points guests to its hotels in Megève. The hotel states that its rooms are not wheelchair accessible, although it keeps a wheelchair, a shower chair, an adapted telephone and vibrating alarm clocks, and the restaurant page lists access for reduced mobility. Anyone with limited mobility should call before booking and ask which room, which route to the pool and which table are workable.
The hotel takes children but has no kids' club. A Prestige room or Junior Suite holds two adults and one child; the Junior Family Suite adds a small second room for two children; some Suites and Cap Camarat and Cap Taillat take two children in the sitting area. Villa and Prestige rooms can connect. Cots and a baby kit are available on request, babysitting needs notice, and Dolce Vita has a children's menu and high chairs.
The price question
The money buys distance from Pampelonne without losing sight of it: a villa in three hectares of pines, a pool and spa kept for hotel guests, and dinner a short walk from the room. It does not buy the village on the doorstep, a sea view in every category, or a stay outside summer. The real comparison is a room in town plus a beach club by day.
Book it for a week of long lunches, the pool and one or two evenings in the village, in a sea-view room. Guests who want to walk out to dinner in town, or to the sand in the morning, are better placed in Saint-Tropez itself.
Hôtel La Ponche
In the heart of Saint-Tropez, above the cove of La Ponche: 21 rooms renovated by Fabrizio Casiraghi, four apartments and one house, with a restaurant facing the sea and a pontoon for swimming.
Lou Pinet
Thirty-four rooms and suites in a pine garden five minutes from Place des Lices, towards Pointe des Salins, with a large pool and a Spa by Tata Harper with hammam and fitness room.
The Extra Edit
Confirmed with your quote
Something extra, from us.
Ask for a stay and a person takes it from there. Any hotel privileges that apply, and a personal Extra arranged by us, are confirmed with your bookable quote.
Tell us which Extra appeals in your request. Nothing is charged when you ask, and no upgrade is promised.
A drink, a meal or an experience: chosen by you, arranged by us.
A person confirms your request within 24 hours.
Rate on request
Personal confirmation within 24 hours