Toile Blanche – seven farmhouses turned into one artwork

On a quiet lane above Saint-Paul de Vence, seven old farm buildings have been joined into a single estate where art is not hung on the walls so much as built into them. Toile Blanche belongs to Nicolas, Gilles and Gregory Leroy, Belgian brothers who formed an artistic collective in 1997 and arrived on this ridge in 2004 with little more than an instinct for the place. Over the following two decades they bought up neighbouring houses one by one, linked them with gardens, and filled the walls and lawns with their own sculpture and painting alongside work by other artists. The result is 22 suites spread across seven buildings, some with stone walls two centuries old, two restaurants, and gardens running to 20,000 square metres. The MICHELIN Guide now gives it One Key, a quiet nod to a farmhouse hotel that still looks, at first glance, entirely unhurried by the years of work that built it.

01The house

The project began small: a first version of Toile Blanche assembled in 2004, with no master plan beyond the brothers' feel for the ridge and its light. House by house, over twelve years, they folded in neighbouring farm buildings until seven separate structures, each with its own history and its own place in the gardens, were connected by lawns and corridors of art.

What sets it apart from other converted mas in the area is who did the converting. Over three decades Gregory, Gilles and Nicolas have worked as a collective across post-internet art, painting, sculpture and installation, and that practice runs through the hotel: a quiet cultural programme continues through the season, much of it without announcement, and the brothers' own sculptures share the gardens with pieces by visiting and resident artists.

02Rooms and suites

The 22 suites are scattered through the seven houses, each named for a mood rather than a number. Suite Pénard opens onto a private patio through French windows; Suite Pétanque, close to where the game is played in the shade, measures a deceptively generous 40 square metres; Suite de la Bronzette runs to 55 square metres with its own terrace and a walk-in shower built for serious sun.

Insider tip

Twenty minutes on foot from the village; Fondation Maeght five minutes by car; Nice airport around fifteen minutes' drive.

History concentrates in the oldest building, where Suite de l'Artiste looks out from a balcony that has held the same view for two hundred years. Next door, the Mas de l'Artiste occupies the original farmhouse itself: ninety square metres of original beams and stone around a private Provençal courtyard. For guests who want their own water, Suite du Bon-Vivant and the two-floor Villa du Pénéquet both come with a private pool.

03Where to eat

Toile Blanche keeps two tables. At midday, La Guinguette serves sharing plates, grilled fish and chilled rosé in the shade of the trees, the kind of lunch that tolerates bare feet and runs long. In the evening, Le Restaurant turns more refined and intimate, moving onto its terrace in summer for dinner over the valley.

The kitchen leans on what the Mediterranean does best: seafood, vegetables, herbs and fruit kept close to source, with the sophistication found in simplicity rather than flourish.

04The art collection

Saint-Paul de Vence has drawn painters and sculptors for a century; Picasso, Chagall and Giacometti all left their mark here, a legacy the Fondation Maeght still carries five minutes down the road. Toile Blanche treats itself as a continuation of that history rather than a museum to it: works are chosen in conversation with each artist, some created specifically for the property, and shown in an on-site gallery that doubles as a working studio.

In 2026 the Leroy Brothers took the idea to its logical conclusion and declared the entire property an artwork in its own right, a gesture in keeping with a hotel that changes its sculpture trail each season and treats the gardens as seriously as the restaurant menus.

05Pools and gardens

Twenty thousand square metres of garden wrap around the seven houses: wild rosemary, century-old olive trees, and a sculpture trail that shifts with the seasons. The grounds are kept without pesticides, part of a stated net-zero target for 2030.

Guests share three pools, heated from mid-April once the season decides it is ready, while four further pools belong privately to individual suites and villas. Spa treatments can be arranged on request.

06The neighbourhood

The medieval village of Saint-Paul de Vence is around twenty minutes on foot from the gate, its ramparts and galleries among the oldest on this stretch of the Riviera and still trading on the painters who once worked and drank here. The coast is a short drive away, with Cannes roughly 25 kilometres off and Nice airport around fifteen minutes by car.

07Making the most of a stay

Toile Blanche belongs to Small Luxury Hotels of the World and carries a Condé Nast Traveller Readers' Choice nod, but reception, open from eight in the morning until eight at night, prefers guests to deal directly. Book through the hotel rather than a third party and the perks stack up: breakfast for two included, a best-rate guarantee and first refusal on any suite upgrade.

Between November and March the hotel runs a quieter season called L'Hiver, with its own advantages for longer stays, a reminder that a ridge above Saint-Paul de Vence has its charms outside the summer crowds too.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.