Lily of the Valley

Lily of the Valley

Twenty minutes from Saint-Tropez and a world away from the traffic and theatre of it, Lily of the Valley sits on a hillside above the Plage de Gigaro inside the protected Cap Lardier estate, one of the last stretches of genuinely unspoilt coastline on the Riviera. Philippe Starck designed the property with a single constraint: nothing could be taller than the surrounding trees. The result is a hotel that disappears into the landscape, its low stone buildings and terraced gardens overlooking five kilometres of wild fine sand beach below, the Golden Islands visible beyond. Fifty-two rooms and suites, all with private terraces facing either the sea or the hills, feel less like hotel rooms and more like a very well-designed version of the house you would build here if you could, all marble bathrooms and Starck's characteristic touches of the quietly unexpected. The hotel's central logic is wellness without austerity. The Shape Club is a 2,000 square metre complex with a 25-metre heated pool, individual coaching rooms, and a full programme of treatments, nutrition consultancy, and sport, developed with nutritionist Dr Jacques Fricker and designed for stays of several days to several weeks. But Lily of the Valley is not a clinic and it does not feel like one. Vista restaurant faces the sea and serves Mediterranean food with a star sommelier and no particular requirement that you be on a programme to eat there. The Village Restaurant in the Wellness Village handles plant-based and health-focused cooking for those who are. Down at the beach, the Lily by the Sea club and the Brigantine at the water's edge take care of everything else, and the pool suite terrace at dusk, with the Golden Islands catching the last of the light, is as fine a reason to book as any. This is a property that suits women who want the Riviera without the performance of it, who find the idea of a week that combines serious wellness, good food, wild swimming, and genuine quiet more appealing than another beach club. Saint-Tropez is there when you want it. Most guests find they want it less than expected. Short version: A Philippe Starck-designed hillside retreat inside the protected Cap Lardier estate above Gigaro Beach, twenty minutes from Saint-Tropez, with 52 rooms and suites, a 2,000m² wellness centre, four restaurants, and the rare quality on the Riviera of feeling genuinely removed from it all while remaining entirely within reach.