Lily of The Valley – Starck's Mediterranean fantasy above Gigaro

On Colline Saint-Michel, a pine-covered hill above Gigaro, Lily of the Valley sits as though it had grown out of the slope rather than been built on it. When media entrepreneur Alain Weill bought the site for the beach his family had loved for generations, he asked Philippe Starck to redesign the existing hotel; Starck, who at first turned the offer down, ended up recommending it be torn down entirely and rebuilt from nothing, taking the role of artistic director himself. The result, opened at the end of June 2019, is a village of low white houses stepped into the hillside, twenty minutes from the revelry of Saint-Tropez and a few steps above a long stretch of wild sand. The MICHELIN Guide awards it Two Keys, citing its 53 rooms, its lavish spa and 25-metre outdoor pool, and the Vista restaurant's view over the bay. It is a hotel built around rest rather than spectacle, though no less considered for it.

01The house

Starck did not want the job at first. He had not set foot in Saint-Tropez for fifty years and disliked the Côte d'Azur's reputation; it took Alain Weill's personal pitch to change his mind. Once committed, Starck moved fast, sketching the concept in a day and a half, and advised scrapping the 1970s building on the site rather than renovating it. What rose in its place was, in his words, built on "the modern ideal of a fantasy Mediterranean, between the journeys of Ulysses and the ceramics of Ancient Greece."

The finished hotel surprised even its creator: he realised he had unconsciously recreated the mood of 1920s neoclassical painting, all Mediterranean arches and sun-washed stone, while the building itself stayed resolutely contemporary. Guest rooms are grouped into small "houses" that step down the hillside, their flat roofs planted over with vegetation so the whole complex reads as landscape rather than architecture. Lily of the Valley joined Leading Hotels of the World even before its doors opened, and ownership – Alain Weill and his daughter Lucie – has kept the project a family one from the start.

02Rooms and suites

Rooms run from 35 to 105 m², each with its own private terrace, and the material language is consistent throughout: polished marble against exposed concrete, exotic woods set beside natural leather. The entry-level Classic and Superior rooms look onto the hills or the Shape Club; Deluxe and Garden Deluxe categories add sea views and private gardens, all at 35–40 m².

Insider tip

Open year-round; reached from Saint-Tropez by coast road; beach shuttle to Plage de Gigaro.

Suites – Classic, Shape Club, Deluxe Sea View and the signature Lily Suite – extend to 72–80 m², while the Pool Suites go further still: the Loft at 86 m² and the Gigaro at 95 m² both open onto a private garden and pool. At the top of the range, Villa W spreads over 250 m² with its own pool, garden and sea view, and a separate Villa sleeps up to six across 210 m². The MICHELIN Guide counts 53 rooms in total, more than double the 38 rooms and six suites the hotel opened with in 2019.

03Where to eat

Vista is the hotel's main dining room, a glass-walled space facing the Mediterranean where head chef Vincent Maillard runs a Provence-inflected menu built on seasonal, sun-grown produce: chickpea fries, broccoli guacamole, a salad the regulars simply call the Lily salad, finished with an iconic eclair or a Dame Blanche. The MICHELIN Guide singles out its menu's strong vegan and vegetarian range, looking out, as it does, over the bay. An elegant-casual dress code applies, and through the year the kitchen builds monthly themed dinners around seasonal produce – Alba white truffle among them.

Down at the beach, two more addresses extend the table to the sand: Brigantine and Pépé, both part of the Beach Club on Plage de Gigaro, alongside the hotel's own Sailing Club.

04The bar

The Vista bar carries the same light-filled, unhurried mood through the day, from early coffee to an end-of-evening cocktail. In summer its reeded roof gives shade; in winter guests gather by the fire. The list runs to house creations and twists on classics, with wines and spirits chosen by the hotel's sommeliers, alongside fresh juices and fragrant herbal teas.

05Spa and wellbeing

The Shape Club is the hotel's reason for being: 2,000 m² given over entirely to wellness, built around a semi-Olympic heated outdoor pool, a Technogym fitness room, private and group studios, a Pilates Reformer studio and a cryotherapy room. A Nordic circuit alternates sauna, Finnish sauna, hammam, cold plunge and snow shower, backed by seven treatment rooms – including a double – and a dedicated relaxation room.

The hotel's wellness method, built around weight-loss cuisine, sport and treatment, was developed with nutritionist Jacques Fricker, and translates into four year-round programmes: Weight Loss, Detox, Sport and Better Aging, each run over four, seven, ten or fourteen days. The Shape Club's protocols have won it recognition as Best Luxury Spa Retreat, Best Luxury Wellness Retreat and France's Best Wellness Retreat.

06The neighbourhood

Lily of the Valley sits inside the Cap Lardier estate, a protected stretch the local tourist board calls one of the green lungs of the Var coast, running along six kilometres of fine, undeveloped sand at Gigaro. The hotel carries the Port-Cros National Park Spirit label in recognition of that setting. Saint-Tropez itself is twenty minutes away by the coast road – close enough for an afternoon, far enough that none of its noise reaches the hilltop.

07Making the most of a stay

Lily of the Valley stays open all year, and autumn is when the hotel argues its case hardest: softer light, a slower pace, and villas with sea views at their quietest in October and November. Programmes can be booked alongside a stay, from a single treatment to a full multi-day Shape Club package, and the hotel runs periodic masterclasses – a Lévitation Experience and a Hercule Studio x Tonic Pilates session featured on its November calendar. A second address, in Courchevel, is due to open in 2027.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.