Byblos Saint-Tropez – the village that invented Riviera nightlife

Two minutes on foot from Place des Lices and the old port, Hôtel Byblos occupies almost 17,000 square metres of ochre-and-pink village theatre at the centre of Saint-Tropez, its 86 rooms and suites scattered cottage-style around a mosaic swimming pool, fountains and gardens. The idea was sketched out in Beirut in 1960 by Jean-Prosper Gay-Para, who wanted a palace worthy of the Thousand and One Nights and inaugurated it on 27 May 1967 with Brigitte Bardot and Mireille Darc as godmothers; Les Caves du Roy, its nightclub, opened the same summer and has barely stopped dancing since. Sold within months to Sylvain Floirat, the hotel is still run by his family, now under great-grandson Antoine Chevanne. The MICHELIN Guide lists Byblos Saint-Tropez among its selection, a quiet nod to a house that has always preferred reputation to review scores.

01The house

The Byblos story begins not in Saint-Tropez but in Lebanon, where two men on a restaurant terrace imagined a hotel named after the Phoenician port city. Jean-Prosper Gay-Para's infatuation with Brigitte Bardot fed his ambition to build "a palace worthy of the Thousand and One Nights, unique in its kind, from one side of the Mediterranean to the other." Construction began in May 1965, and the opening on 27 May 1967 was a three-day affair, gathering more than 700 guests, personalities from the world of politics, literature and the arts graced by two exceptional godmothers: Mireille Darc and Brigitte Bardot. Les Caves du Roy followed within weeks; by September, war in the Middle East had sent Gay-Para home and the hotel into the hands of businessman Sylvain Floirat.

Mick Jagger married Bianca Pérez in Saint-Tropez in 1971, and he honeymooned at the hotel in the suite that still carries the association today. In 2001, Antoine Chevanne, great-grandson of Sylvain Floirat, took on the ownership of the Byblos and became chief executive officer of Groupe Floirat, continuing a single-family stewardship now in its fourth generation. The hotel earned its fifth star in 2009, and the most recent chapter arrived in 2025, with a wholesale refresh of the restaurants and bars that anchor the central pool.

02Rooms and suites

Spread over almost 17,000m2, the Byblos and its 86 rooms, including 47 suites, forms a veritable little village, with lush gardens, fountains and a magnificent swimming pool at its centre. Classic and Deluxe Rooms, dotted around the property with views over the village, garden or pool, run between 28 and 38 square metres and are each decorated in a distinct Mediterranean idiom. The two-storey Deluxe Suites go further: a ground-floor bedroom and bathroom with a separate bath and shower, a first-floor bedroom reached by stairs, and between 80 and 90 square metres in total, enough for up to four guests across two bathrooms.

Insider tip

Seasonal: open roughly late April to mid-October; nightclub access is selective even for residents.

At the top of the house sit the Suite du Roy, the Byblos Presidential Suite, and, since 2024, four newly inaugurated signature suites. In 2024, Byblos inaugurated four new signature suites designed by renowned French interior architect Laura Gonzalez. It is the kind of detail that keeps the hotel feeling like a living project rather than a museum piece — a village that keeps adding new houses to itself.

03Where to eat

The newest arrival on the pool terrace is Il Giardino, located by the iconic pool, unfolding in a lush setting with its green pergola inspired by Italian gardens. It is run by Executive Chef Nicola Canuti, whose menu draws directly on the hotel's own kitchen garden: a stone's throw from the hotel, the 300m2 sustainable garden, designed in collaboration with naturopath Bodo Fath, grows over 70 varieties of fruit, vegetables and aromatic flowers. Expect maccaroncini in tomato sauce with mozzarella stracciatella, paccheri in a rich carbonara sauce, and langoustine spaghetti for two, served under the pergola every evening from 7:30pm to 10:30pm, extending to 11:30pm in July and August.

Each summer, Il Giardino is joined by a second table: Zuma takes up residence at the Byblos for its second address on the Côte d'Azur, offering a refined izakaya experience. Between the two, the hotel manages to be both resolutely Italian and briefly, fashionably, Japanese, without ever losing the sense that the pool, not the dining room, is the real stage.

04The bar and the Sky Bar

For those seeking a chic yet relaxed atmosphere, the B.Lounge is just steps away from the pool, inviting guests to unwind during the day before transforming at sunset into an elegant gathering place, with refreshing cocktails and a Mediterranean-inspired menu. The venue was fully renovated in 2025 as part of the hotel's wider refresh of its food-and-beverage outlets.

Above it, reached by a short climb, sits the new rooftop. A brand-new space located just above the bar, the Sky Bar is a unique retreat where the mosaic, an iconic signature of Byblos, takes centre stage, linking past and present against a panorama over the Bay of Saint-Tropez — the best vantage point in the house for watching the light change over the gulf at the end of the day.

05Les Caves du Roy

No account of the Byblos is complete without its nightclub. A magical setting with a subtle oriental feel, the mythical illuminated palm trees at Les Caves du Roy are familiar to nightclubbers the world over, and the room has run almost unbroken since July 1967. It operates with a resident DJ, open until 5am, with a capacity of 540 guests, and has been shaped for nearly three decades by one name in particular: resident DJ Jack.E, who has held the decks since 1997.

The guest list across the decades reads like a history of Riviera glamour itself, from Mick Jagger and Grace Jones to Leonardo DiCaprio and Naomi Campbell. Entry, even for hotel residents, is never automatic — which is, of course, precisely the point of a club that has spent sixty years cultivating exclusivity rather than advertising it.

06Byblos Spa by Sisley

The spa claims a genuine first: it was the first Sisley spa to open in France, launched in 2007, and was fully reimagined in 2023. Today it covers 450 square metres with five individual treatment rooms and a waterfall room with sensory showers, redesigned by interior architects Anthony and Marine Ugo. The 2023 relaunch introduced a holistic program, billed as the first of its kind in the luxury hotel industry, folding breathwork, reiki and sound therapy in alongside the Sisley treatment menu.

The showpiece is the couples' suite: the pièce de resistance, filled with Jerusalem stone plucked from a 17th-century palace in Beirut and assembled piece by piece — a direct, literal echo of the hotel's own Lebanese origin story. Elsewhere, a Roger Capron-inspired mosaic patio opens up to yoga, meditation and wellness workshops, continuing the mosaic motif that runs, deliberately, through the whole property.

07The neighbourhood

The address could hardly be more central: a mythical 5-star hotel in the heart of Saint-Tropez, two minutes' walk from the Place des Lices and the harbour. Step outside the gates and the village's café terraces, boutiques and fish market are immediately within reach; step back in, and the noise falls away behind high walls and olive trees.

Byblos keeps Riviera hours as much as Riviera style: it is a seasonal house, closing each winter and reopening in spring — the 2026 season ran from 22 April until 11 October, open every day. Beyond the hotel itself, the same family group operates Byblos Beach on Pampelonne in Ramatuelle, extending the same service to the sand for guests who want their Saint-Tropez both poolside and beachfront.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.