Rosé-pink walls, umbrella pines and a private beach on the Plage de la Bouillabaisse, a ten-minute stroll from the old port. Small, calm and pointedly unfussy, this is the St-Tropez the magazines tend to skip: no DJ, no velvet rope, no one checking your labels. Arnaud Donckele runs the kitchen at La Vague d'Or, holds three Michelin stars and is a saucier before he's anything else (you'll understand at dinner). The original Capron ceramics survived the LVMH makeover, which tells you the tone. The village is ten minutes on foot. The pontoon is thirty seconds. We know which we'd choose.
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Jean-Michel Wilmotte kept the bones and lightened everything else: pale oak, textured cream walls, blue-and-cream brushstrokes and flea-market Art Nouveau chairs that pick up on the ceramics. Jean Mus laid out the gardens. Down on the sand, the loungers are spaced properly (a rarity on this coast), the infinity pool is heated and the bar opens at breakfast and closes when it feels like it. A house scent of fig, pine and jasmine follows you about. You'll miss it.
Almost everything faces the sea, which is rather the point. Courtyard rooms look inward to the pines instead and cost less, a fair trade if your days belong to the beach anyway. Each sea-facing category adds a little more terrace as you go up. Ask for the Heure Bleue suite, angled squarely at the sunset. Bathrooms are marble and brushed brass, tubs placed for the view, and Villa Riviera stands apart with its own pool and cinema.
On Tuesday and Saturday mornings, the Place des Lices market fills the square beneath the plane trees with peaches, tapenade and gossip. Go before nine to beat the heat and the crowds. The Sentier du Littoral loops from the citadel round the peninsula, cove after turquoise cove. Behind, Ramatuelle and Gassin cling to the hills, rosé estates sit minutes inland and the Musée de l'Annonciade keeps the Signacs that first put the village on the map. Give it an hour.
Dinner at La Vague d'Or, where Donckele builds every plate around its jus, broth or vinaigrette. You'll spend the rest of the year quietly disappointed by everyone else's sauces.
Ask the concierge for a boat from the private pontoon. A short hop gets you to the Calanques de l'Escalet for a swim, or across the gulf for a long lunch, with the coast road left well behind.
Inside the gate, all is calm. Outside, St-Tropez in August is bumper to bumper and the beach road is the only way in by car, so walk to the village. The rooms, too, are lovely but on the compact side.
Cheval Blanc St-Tropez can be booked with Timbuktu as part of a tailor-made France trip, rather than as a standalone room reservation. Start online, customising one of our recommended France trips featuring Cheval Blanc St-Tropez or get advice and suggestions from one of our France specialists who will design the trip around your dates, check availability and handle every booking for you.
Stays at Cheval Blanc St-Tropez start from around $890, or US$890, per person per night as part of a tailor-made trip. The exact price depends on your travel dates, room type and the shape of the rest of your itinerary. A Timbuktu travel specialist can give you an accurate quote for your dates.
The Riviera’s most famous playground.
