RESTAURANTS - CHEFS - HOTELS - REVIEWS & STORIES

"Villa Belrose*****"
Gassin, St. Tropez, France

Dreamlike view over the bay of St. Tropez. Perched high on the hillside overlooking the bay of Saint Tropez (or more correctly termed the Golfe de St. Tropez), Hotel Villa Belrose four star deluxe and member of Relais & Châteaux and "Palaces de la Côte d’Azur" is one of those dream hotels for the amazing view, the comfort and the marvelous food; and it just keeps getting better and better..

Peter and Linda D'Aprix 2004-2015
hotel | restaurant

Hotel:
Inspired by a Florence villa with its mimosa yellow facades and white trim, the building is quite new, built in the 1990’s, and couples traditional styling with modern touches that makes it a comfortable blend of formal and informal. Guests can be seen padding around in terry cloth slippers and bathing suits or black lace ups and business suits that co-exist without problem. Some come to baste and roast themselves pool side often with a cell phone plugged into an ear or to snooze and get an all over tan with their modesty ensured by a piece of colored twine.

Many come for the extremely fine cuisine at the hotel’s indoor/outdoor restaurant with its emphasis on Mediterranean cuisine and marvelous vegetable and fish dishes. If the view and the quiet are not enough, there is the night life of St. Tropez just a few minutes away except during the height of the summer or on market day (Tuesdays), in which case forget it unless you like to bake in your car bogged down in traffic. (But in 2010, "Le Petit Belrose", the new poolside bistro, opened to the general public, so you can enjoy a break from traffic or anything else, and enjoy lunch by the pool. No heli pad, sorry. However, there is one in St. Tropez where there is a heli shuttle between St. Tropez and Nice 18 mns. Without traffic, it is about 10 mns from the hotel. The hotel offers shuttle service between the two.

The 35 rooms (really junior suites) and 3 full suites are attractive and comfortably decorated with Provençale fabrics, all with a private terrace and look eastward. In keeping with the Florentine inspiration, the spacious bathrooms are tiled in Italian marble. If you are spending a family holiday, some of the rooms can accommodate up to 4 people and others have communicating doors not to mention access to babysitting and a hair dresser, so mothers can have a holiday too! There is also massage and various beauty treatments (facial, body treatments and aromatic oil massages) also available at the beauty center right alongside the fitness gym down by the 200 sq. meter swimming pool, one of the largest on the peninsula.

This is a place to either never leave or use as a center for the many and varied activities of the region. Golf is available at the 18 hole St. Maxime Golf Club on the other side of the bay; Tennis at St. Tropez Tennis Club just 2 km from the hotel; Go-Karting is just 3 kms away in Grimaud; sandy beaches are all around from just down the hill, around the bay and across the peninsula at famous Tahiti and many more. For those with a culinary itinerary, the areas is filled with restaurants of all denominations, wineries, olive oil producers and much more. If you get an early start, the Tuesday market is superb with a stand selling goat cheese and some of the most amazing cherries. Every morning there is a small specialty market just within the walls of the old town whose access through the fortified walls hosts the fresh fish market.

Restaurant:
We last covered the restaurant with its marvelous chef several times between 2004 and 2010, but we are now informed that they have a new young chef who sounds marvelous, Executive Chef Pietro Volontè from Italy with stints with chef Gordon Ramsay's two star kitchens at the "Trianon Palace" in Versailles. So we cannot comment as yet on the new cuisine he brings with him but if his background is anything to go by, it will be special. What we can say is that Director Robert Jan van Straaten picks the best talent and the the place you will eat it either by the pool, on the dining terrace outdoors overlooking the pool and the bay of St. Tropez or in the more formal dinning room will be a special, magical experience.