VILLA MARIE
Côte d’Azur
St Tropez is a circus, the Miami of France. The scene is there if you want it, but if you don’t, St Tropez regulars would say that all you have to do is stay poolside in your villa... if you have a villa. Although the town has some high-profile accommodation, it had no hotel where you could escape from the misbehaving. There wasn’t just a gap, but a huge gaping void for the arrival of Villa Marie. It’s set high in the hills, amid six hectares of lush gardens that cascade spectacularly down steep slopes. The beach isn’t far away, say 10 minutes or so, so it’s the perfect retreat.
The current owners spent two years renovating the property. They had to reorientate the rooms — unbelievably, none had sea views — and they gave the interiors an Italianate feel, which is fitting, because this part of France was once very Italian. There’s plenty of colour — red, orange, green, dark brown — and a particularly eclectic combination of art, objects and furniture: drawings by Matisse and Picasso, 1950s patinated garden chairs and the odd gilded Louis XVI piece. The bedrooms are spacious and unconventional, like mini Tuscan lofts. It feels like an old Italian playboy’s mansion.
Details: 00 33 4 94 97 40 22, www.villamarie.fr; doubles from £135. British Airways (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com) flies to Toulon, about 40 minutes from St Tropez. Holiday Autos (0870 400 0010, www.holidayautos.co.uk) has a week’s car hire from £119.
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LA HUCHET
Les Landes
La Huchet is this amazing wooden house sitting in the middle of miles of sand dunes — it looks as if it’s been shipwrecked. A couple of hundred years ago, it was a hunting cottage where noblemen came to shoot boar in Europe’s largest pine forest — though that’s “cottage” only in the sense that a Georgian pile is a shack. La Huchet has 20ft ceilings, enormous chandeliers and fireplaces in every room. A few years ago, the celebrated chef Michel Guérard, who pioneered nouvelle cuisine, turned it into a suitably grand hotel for just 10 guests.
Rooms have aristocratic proportions, with an old, moneyed beach-house atmosphere created by the clever mix of rustic ephemera and colonial souvenirs. And it comes with the strangest rule: the only way to stay here is to have stayed first at Guérard’s nearby spa, the luxurious Les Prés d’Eugénie. So you purify yourself and lose weight at the health farm, then you spoil yourself rotten at La Huchet, on Guérard’s delicious food, and put it all back on. It’s a neat idea for the owner — guarantees him continual business.
Details: book through Les Prés d’Eugénie (00 33 5 58 05 05 05, www.michelguerard.com); doubles from £185. Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) flies to Biarritz, about 40 miles from La Huchet. Suncars (0870 500 5566, www.suncars.com) has a week’s car hire from £135.
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LE MAS DE PEINT
Camargue
The Camargue is a gypsy version of Marlboro country, defined by its white horses, its bullfighting and its flamingo-filled marshes. And, unlike most of Europe, traditions here aren’t staged for the tourists, they’re still very much alive. Bang in the middle is Jacques Bon’s ranch, Le Mas de Peint. Bon was born on his ranch and raised on a horse — he’s a larger-than-life character with a huge white moustache, always immaculately dressed in matching cowboy hat, shirt and moleskin piped pants. His plan was to offer an authentic Camargue experience: guests would eat in the kitchen amid the copper pots and antique armoires, sleep in simple rooms and be invited to go out on horseback and help herd the livestock. Before you jump to conclusions about this being for hardy types, this is roughing it French-style, so the food can be only fractionally short of a Michelin star and Bon’s wife has introduced a distinctly urban edge to the design. The decor is pared-down neutrals and natural fabrics. Bedrooms have exposed beams and brass beds, and are sumptuously spacious. You can chase bulls or hang around the horse paddock — the one that’s been converted into a great swimming pool.
Details: 00 33 4 90 97 20 62, www.masdepeint.com; doubles from £140. Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) flies to Nîmes, 30 miles from Mas de Peint. A taxi costs about £40.
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CHATEAU DE BAGNOLS
Burgundy
This is not just a hotel, it’s a slice of French history. There’s not a period in the past 800 years that hasn’t left its mark on this chateau, but it was in a forlorn and neglected state when Lord and Lady Hamlyn took it on in 1987 — and that was exactly what they wanted. Lady Hamlyn has a tremendous sense of style, and she’s gutsy. The rooms had been redecorated many times over the centuries, and it takes bravery to strip off those frescoes to see if there’s something better underneath. Bravery and deep pockets: this was a four-year restoration on an industrial scale, achieved with archeological precision.
What we’re left with is something beyond the norm for a hotel. Much of the decor dates back to a makeover in the late 18th century; there are old frescoes in guest rooms, sumptuous Napoleonic baths and huge fireplaces. The historical signature, the beautiful interior decoration, the level of service (it’s now run by Rocco Forte) and Burgundy beyond — it’s a pretty potent package. You have to come out of a stay here feeling a better person.
Details: 00 33 4 74 71 40 00, www.bagnols.com; doubles from £300. Fly to Lyons, 40 minutes from the hotel, with BA (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com) or EasyJet (www.easyjet.com).
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LE MANOIR
Côte d’Azur
The Iles d’Or, the little islands off the Côte d’Azur, are the last big secret in France. Regular guests will hate me for mentioning them. All three are exceptionally beautiful, but the most perfectly untouched is Port-Cros, and that’s where Le Manoir is. Until about 20 years ago, Port-Cros was a private island. The owner, Marcel Henry, left the land to the government on condition that it be made into a marine park and nature reserve, and returned to its original ecological state. Consequently, there’s a small army of biologists working here, replanting sea kelp and replacing other underwater plants. Above ground are wild empty beaches, and there are no roads, just dirt tracks crisscrossing the island, with wonderful abandoned Napoleonic forts.
This place is for anyone who’s ever wondered how beautiful the south of France must have been before it became the south of France. As for Le Manoir, it’s a whitewashed, green-shuttered, turreted affair. It’s still owned by Henry’s descendants, and they aren’t interested in anything but running a small, elegant hotel. The rooms might have been the original inspiration for shabby chic — it all feels effortless and real.
Details: 00 33 4 94 05 90 52; doubles from £103, half-board. Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) flies to Toulon; from there, it’s a five-minute cab ride to the harbour for the 40-minute ferry ride to Port-Cros (£15).
LE LODGE PARK
Megève
This is one of the prettiest ski villages in Europe, all cobblestones, with lots of little cafes and a church with a clock tower. It’s popular with Parisians — always a good sign — and Le Lodge Park is the place to stay. It’s Ralph Lauren goes skiing — sportif, but with style. In fact, the place is perfectly propped to allow you to live the life of a mountain man: antler chairs upholstered in faux leopard skin and cushions that feature little chipmunks; bedrooms clad in logs; and a salon with more riverstone fireplaces, bearskin rugs and hunting trophies than a lodge in Alaska. Yet what’s so strange is that it still feels uncannily French. It might not be authentic — purists might dismiss it as decorative camouflage — but it is the perfect stage for living out that fantasy lifestyle.
Details: 00 33 4 50 93 05 03, www.lodgepark.com; doubles from £212. Fly to Geneva, 43 miles from Megève, with BA (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com), EasyJet (www.easyjet.com), Flybe (0871 700 0535, www.flybe.com) or Aer Lingus (0818 365000, www.aerlingus.com). Europcar (0870 607 5000, www.europcar.co.uk) has a week’s car hire from £159.
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Herbert Ypma’s Hip Hotels series is published by Thames & Hudson. To order a copy of Hip Hotels: France (RRP £18.95) at the reduced price of £17.06, including free p&p within the UK, call The Sunday Times Books First on 0870 165 8585