La Réserve Ramatuelle

La Réserve Ramatuelle, owned by Michel Reybier, sits in its own garrigue above the sea near Saint-Tropez, beneath a modernist crescent of a roofline. In 2024 Jacques Garcia redesigned the hotel with the Riviera of the 1950s and 1960s in mind, the world of Cocteau, Picasso and the ceramicist Roger Capron, and Jean Cocteau's original plates are still on display alongside pieces by Capron's grandson, Julien. There are 27 rooms and suites and 13 villas, and the villas are let throughout the year. At La Voile, chef Éric Canino, who trained under Michel Guérard and has led the kitchen since it opened in 2009, holds a two-MICHELIN-star rating, with an all-vegetable menu and spice-rubbed bluefin tuna among his signatures. La Muña serves Japanese cooking and La Brasserie a more relaxed table. The Nescens spa of 1,000 square metres has 11 treatment rooms and a heated indoor pool. On Pampelonne beach, La Réserve à la Plage, designed by Philippe Starck with interiors by Loro Piana, completes the picture. May, June and September are the gentler months on this coast, before and after the summer rush.