Hostellerie Les Gorges de Pennafort – winning back its star

Forty minutes inland from the beaches of the Golfe de Saint-Tropez, the road into Callas climbs through vineyard and oak wood before the valley opens, without warning, onto a wall of ochre-red rock that locals know as "le petit Colorado". Facing that cliff stands a Provençal bastide that began as a ruin: Maurice Garrassin, owner of the quarry of La Catalane, bought the estate with a ruined house from the Army, because the scraps of washing materials produced by the quarry were beginning to infringe upon it, and in the early 1990s set his daughter Geneviève to restoring it as a hotel. Chef Philippe Da Silva, who already held two Michelin stars in Paris before settling at the Gorges de Pennafort with his wife, Martine, opened the restaurant and won his first star the next year — a star the MICHELIN Guide withdrew in 2022, the year after Da Silva's sudden death. Today the Guide lists Les Gorges de Pennafort among its selected addresses, while his former second, Anthony Salliège, works to earn it back. The house keeps 13 rooms, a Thalgo spa and a pool, built for quiet rather than spectacle.

01The house

The site began as a ruin on quarry land. In the early 1990s the Garrassin family decided to create a hotel restaurant and gave the job of restoring the abandoned bastide to daughter Geneviève. Her choices — a contemporary and warm style mixing antique furniture, current materials and high-end equipment — still shape the interiors guests see today.

The restaurant opened its doors in March 1995 under Da Silva, who had already made his name in Paris. Burgundian chef Anthony Salliège joined him soon after; he spent ten years as second, then executive chef, under Philippe Da Silva before Da Silva died on 24 April 2021, taken by Covid-19. The Guide withdrew the star in 2022; front of house and kitchen alike closed ranks around Da Silva's widow, Martine, and in 2024 Salliège was joined as co-chef by Julien Lépine, who arrived from the Auberge du Clos Pierrepont in Montferrat — a friend since the two men worked together at the hostellerie in the early 2000s.

02Rooms and suites

Thirteen rooms and junior suites are split between two buildings. Seven Standard rooms occupy the second floor above the restaurant — five looking over the gorge and gardens at around 20 square metres, two facing the hillside behind the property at about 16 square metres. In the annexe, three Chambre Salon rooms of around 28 square metres (one adapted for reduced mobility) separate a bed from a sitting area, while three 36-square-metre Junior Suites add a dressing room and a balcony or terrace of their own. Some rooms communicate, letting families spread across two linked rooms for up to four people. Parquet floors and period furniture sit against contemporary comfort throughout: air conditioning, free Wi-Fi, a minibar, a safe and satellite television come as standard.

Insider tip

Closed Mondays and Tuesdays; annual closure from 20 December to mid-February. Book the restaurant separately.

03Where to eat

Anthony Salliège now shares the stoves with Julien Lépine, and the menu still carries dishes that trace back to Da Silva — foie gras and Parmesan ravioli, langoustine carpaccio with a citrus vinaigrette and caviar, sesame-marinated tuna, roast squab with truffled mash and a Saint-Julien red wine jus — alongside Salliège's own additions, among them red mullet with young vegetables, a saffron-fennel coulis and a carrot sorbet. Local partners thread through the kitchen too: olive oil from the Moulin de Callas, foie gras from Andignac, citrus from the Domaine du Jasson and truffles from Hugou Dumas.

Gault&Millau's 2025 review called the inheritance "a little heavy" for any chef to carry, pointing to a kitchen still drawn from the memories of a long friendship rather than a clean break. The dining room occupies the old bastide itself, bright through tall windows; in summer, service moves onto a terrace shaded by lime trees, under a bioclimatic pergola that opens and closes with the weather. The wine list runs to 600 references and is strongest in champagne.

04The bar

A bar and lounge sit beside the dining room for an apéritif before dinner or a digestif after it, and a caviar cellar can be booked in advance for guests who want something colder and saltier to start.

05Spa and pool

Wellbeing here runs through a space designed with Thalgo — facials, massages and beauty treatments — plus a hammam, a solarium and a small fitness room. Outside, an unheated outdoor pool and its wooden terrace stay open for most of the year, looking onto the garden rather than the cliff face across the road.

06The neighbourhood

Callas carries real weight of history behind it. The village's story, and the rock after which Pennafort is named in Provençal, run back to the ninth century; in 1298 Georges de Vintimille paid homage for the fief of Pennafort to Charles II, King of Sicily and Count of Provence, and in 1559 the villagers rose up and killed their own lord. The hotel sits a short drive from the Golfe de Saint-Tropez — about 30 minutes to the beaches — and within range of Fréjus and the Gorges du Verdon; the village itself still keeps its windmill, tall terraced houses and shaded squares for anyone who walks down from the gates.

07Making the most of a stay

Reception lends out racquets for the tennis court and boules for the shaded pétanque pitch, and a hiking trail leaves straight from the grounds. Electric drivers will find Tesla and Porsche charging points on site. For private events, a seminar room seats up to 24 and the restaurant can be set for up to 90 covers for weddings and receptions.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.