THE FACTS ABOUT LE BEAUVALLON

France Cote_d_Azur

On a hill covered in mimosa and umbrella pines stands the only belle époque palace between Cannes and Marseilles: Le Beauvallon. The 70-room, rust-coloured hotel, just across the bay for St-Tropez, near Port Grimaud and Sainte-Maxime, has had an eventful history: built in 1914, it has been both a hospital and a golf hotel, with a guest book boasting F Scott Fitzgerald, Lady Churchill and Teddy Kennedy. It was substantially but sensitively refurbished in 1998 and has a laid-back, unpretentious atmosphere not often found in this part of the Côte d'Azur. Bedrooms are spacious and eastern-inspired, decorated in bold, warm colours (there is an abundance of mustard) and filled with elegant teak furniture and antique Oriental ornaments. Breakfast is served all day so you don't have to get up early to enjoy it, and each room comes with a friendly (but not overbearing) personal butler to assist with restaurant bookings, local information and activities. There are three spa studios on ground floor with private decks and plunge pools. The hotel's fine-dining restaurant, Les Colonnades is in the main house and overlooks a huge cocktail terrace with sweeping lawns below. There is also a secluded beach club, hidden behind a wall of trees, with a large outdoor swimming pool flanked by cabanas, a 500-metre-long sandy beach, a waterfront bar/restaurant specialising in Mediterranean seafood (with indoor and outdoor dining areas), and a branch of the British fashion boutique Heidi Klein. Le Beauvallon is an excellent choice for families. Actively anticipating the needs of younger guests, it has a playroom, a screening room for children's films, and an extensive water-sports programme at the beach club. Best of all, the hotel offers a free hourly speedboat shuttle service, taking guests in less than eight minutes to and from the party zone at Nikki Beach and Le Club 55. CONTACT Le Beauvallon, boulevard des Collines, Beauvallon-Grimaud, Sainte-Maxime, France (00 33 4 94 55 78 88; www.lebeauvallon.com). Doubles from 205 euros