La Passagère – dining in the Fitzgeralds' Art Deco villa

La Passagère occupies the ground floor of the Hôtel Belles Rives, the Art Deco villa above Juan-les-Pins where Scott Fitzgerald moved in 1925 and began writing one of his masterpieces, Tender Is the Night. A Russian émigré, Boma Estène, bought the villa in 1929 and turned it into a hotel that has never left his family; his great-granddaughter Marianne Estène-Chauvin now runs it, and acquired the neighbouring Hôtel Juana in 2006 to found the Groupe Belles Rives. Her restaurant has been led by Chef Aurélien Véquaud since 2016, the year it was awarded its MICHELIN Star, which it still holds. The dining room opens onto a terrace facing the Mediterranean and the Lérins Islands, and almost everything that reaches the table comes from the sea: mullet, leerfish and other modest Mediterranean catch that most kitchens on this coast no longer trouble with. It is cooking built on precision rather than spectacle, inside a room where 1930s glamour has been restored rather than replaced.

01The room and the setting

Before it became a hotel, this address was the Villa Saint-Louis, and in 1925 it was here that the American writer Scott Fitzgerald settled with his wife, a stay during which he began one of his masterpieces, Tender Is the Night. In 1929, Boma Estène, a Russian émigré, bought the villa and turned it into the Belles Rives, a small Art Deco jewel. Marianne Estène-Chauvin, his great-granddaughter, bought the hotel outright in 2001 and, in 2006, added the nearby Hôtel Juana to found the Groupe Belles Rives.

The dining room has been reworked by designer Olivier Antoine, and its restored chrome chandeliers, period murals, bow windows and mosaic floor still carry the hotel's Art Deco identity, set off by pieces of ceramic around the room. Outside, the terrace looks straight onto the Lérins Islands, with the sea's colours shifting through the meal.

02The chef

Aurélien Véquaud is from the Vendée, on the Atlantic coast, and made his first steps at La Marine under Alexandre Couillon before heading south. He trained at La Réserve de Beaulieu with Meilleur Ouvrier de France Olivier Brulard, then spent ten years at La Pinède in Saint-Tropez as first sous-chef to Arnaud Donckele, learning to work the Mediterranean terroir, before a further spell back at La Réserve under Yannick Franques. He took over the kitchens of the Belles Rives, where La Passagère has been starred since 2016, and in 2019 Gault & Millau named him Grand Chef de Demain. In 2025 he was promoted Executive Chef of the Groupe Belles Rives, now also overseeing the Hôtel Juana's restaurant Paseo. "Cooking is above all about love, sharing and emotion," he writes on his own menu, adding that his team does everything it can to make each meal both surprising and singular.

Insider tip

Open Wednesday to Sunday; closes for winter, reopening for its next season in spring.

He works alongside pastry chef Steve Moracchini and head sommelier Aymerick Verdy, with the dining room led by Damian Sanchez Perez; around twenty people make up the kitchen and dining-room team, five of them in pastry.

03The cooking

Having grown up on the Atlantic coast, Véquaud masters the briny notes of fish, shellfish and seafood, and brings lesser-known regional catch such as mullet, liche and rouffe to the table, alongside seaweed and samphire; even his house-made butter is infused with the citrussy hint of sea fennel. In September 2026 he introduced Écume des Saveurs, a daily three-course menu built around three sequences and guided strictly by the season and by the finest produce he can find that day. It sits alongside Green Light, a five-course vegetable menu, Mer en Héritage, a five-course seafood menu, and Invitation au Voyage, an eight-part tasting menu. His own spring 2026 menu credits the fishermen, market gardeners, cheesemakers and even a saffron grower and a rose horticulturist behind the produce, among them fleur de sel from Noirmoutier, saffron from the Jas des Rochers and Valbonne goat's cheese.

04What to order

On the Green Light vegetable menu: white Provençal asparagus with orange blossom and tagetes, garden peas with bergamot mint and green curry, a potato dish with Valbonne goat's cheese and burnt lemon, morel with wild garlic and spring miso, and a rhubarb dessert with juniper and muscat ice cream. On Mer en Héritage: green Provençal asparagus with cured tuna belly and nasturtium, Mediterranean langoustine with elderflower and Corsican grapefruit, blue crab "sous la roche" with fennel and moray eel, monkfish with artichokes barigoule and an XO tripe sauce, and a chocolate dessert made with 70% Tuma Yellow and immortelle. The cheese course brings Brousse du Rove with black olives and a garrigue vinaigrette, or the full farmhouse trolley from the Mons and Métin affineurs.

05Wine and drinks

Head sommelier Aymerick Verdy has built his list almost entirely around Mediterranean islands, going in search of forgotten grape varieties and rare vintages from unusual terroirs, including the vineyards of Saint-Honorat and the Italian archipelagos, to pair against Véquaud's cooking. Each menu comes with three tiers of pairing, from a non-alcoholic Bulles, Jus & Délices option through Les Îles de la Méditerranée up to the Prestige selection, priced according to the length of the menu chosen.

06When to go and booking

La Passagère is open Wednesday to Sunday, from 7.30pm to 10pm, as read on its own menu in October 2026; the dress code is elegant, and pets are not accepted. Valet parking is offered at the hotel entrance, and the nearest station is Gare Juan-les-Pins, a five-minute walk away. Like many Riviera seafront tables, the restaurant closes for winter; its own site has pointed guests toward gift vouchers while awaiting its next gastronomic season.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.