3 Best Hotels in St-Paul-de-Vence, The French Riviera

If the Garden of Eden offered a five-star spa retreat, this Relais & Châteaux property—where rooms in elegant bastides (country houses) have their own outdoor spaces amid sculpture-dotted, aromatic gardens—would be it. In addition to a dozen treatment rooms, the expansive spa has a hammam, saunas, a snow cave, a heated pool, and a fitness studio with coach-led classes. Around every corner there's a new discovery, from a sand-bottomed beach club lagoon with a slide and waterfall to an adults-only villa with a private pool. Families are warmly welcomed with an Alice in Wonderland–themed play park and a kids’ club that operates daily during school holidays. Dogs are welcome, too. Seasonal produce from the gardens inspires the cuisine at La Table de Pierre gastronomic and bistro style Lis Orto restaurants. Le Bar invites you to unwind by the fire with a bespoke cocktail.

Often called the most beautiful inn in France, "the golden dove" occupies a rose-stone Renaissance mansion just outside the walls of St-Paul-de-Vence and is so perfect overall that some contend you haven't really been to the French Riviera until you've stayed or dined here. Walk into the dining room and you'll do a double take—yes, those are real Mirós, Bonnards, and Légers on the walls, given in payment in hungrier days when this inn was the cherished retreat of Picasso and Chagall, Maeterlinck and Kipling, and Yves Montand and Simone Signoret (who met and married here). Upstairs, the guest rooms are bewitching, replete with Louis XIII armoires, medieval four-posters, wood beams, Provençal borders, and murals; even rooms in the two annexes are flawless and tasteful.

Less than a mile below tourist-packed St-Paul-de-Vence, with views of the valley and the village, this lovely little inn is a jumble of terraces, trellises, archways, orange trees, olives, and honeysuckle vines. The main hotel, built in 1920, has good-size rooms and old Provençal furniture; you can also opt for the 18th-century farmhouse, with smaller, more modern rooms but wonderful views. Each room seems to skew toward a private world, and several have individual terraces that are perfect for grasses matinées (late, lazy breakfasts, €15).