Côte d'Azur, France

Le Saint Paul

Price per night from$333.66

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR308.41), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Painter’s historic house

Setting

Bohemian Saint Paul de Vence

Le Saint Paul has original Chagalls adorning its silk walls, antiques and objets d’art galore, and dazzling Côte d’Azur views from its hilltop ramparts. Rooms are light and airy and the restaurant is ravishing, with two romantic dining rooms and a flower-packed terrace overlooking the maze of cobbled streets and alleyways.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A welcome drink and afternoon tea for two

Facilities

Photos Le Saint Paul facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Sixteen, including 13 suites.

Check–Out

11am (flexible, depending on availability). Check-in from 4pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £290.70 (€339), including tax at 10 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of €4.42 per person per night on check-out.

More details

Rates exclude breakfast (€32 for Continental), but include a welcome drink and petits fours on arrival, and afternoon tea with sweet treats.

Also

Help yourself to home-made biscuits and cakes, such as delicate apple tarts, in the lounge. Team with tea or coffee, or take a tot from the decanters of whisky or brandy.

At the hotel

Library, free WiFi in the lounge, and a terrace with a walled garden. In rooms: flatscreen TV, free bottled water and minibar.

Our favourite rooms

Room 28 is a deluxe room with a warm autumnal palette of ruby reds and russet browns, and pretty village views. Peek out of the windows and you can admire the village’s winding streets. Room 36 is a spacious junior suite, with high ceilings and a soft dove grey and pink colour scheme, as well as a big bathroom, and dazzling views. If you want a roof terrace to remember, book Suite 50, which overlooks the mountains and the Med beyond.

Packing tips

Pared down elegance for the restaurant; cobble-friendly shoes; a sketch pad and water colours for aspiring artists.

Also

Petite pooches can come too, for €50 a night.

Pet‐friendly

Dogs and cats are welcome in uncarpeted rooms for €30 a night. Just let the hotel know when booking. See more pet-friendly hotels in Côte d'Azur.

Children

Leave the little Smiths at home, this storied stay is over-18s only.

Food and Drink

Photos Le Saint Paul food and drink

Top Table

Sit close to the fountain, by the tall window – you can peer out and admire the walled garden as you eat. On warm days, make a beeline for the terrace and breathe in the scent of bougainvilleas.

Dress Code

The Côte d'Azur calls for elegant attire: cashmere in the evening, a tailored shirt or tea-frock in the day.

Hotel restaurant

There are two dining rooms; one with wooden vaulted ceilings, decked out with flower and fruit murals, lit by candlelight, and one with a romantic fountain. A walled garden, trailing curtains of bougainvillea, surrounds a little terrace, where you can dine in seclusion outdoors. The food is sophisticated and decadent, with an emphasis on seasonal ingredients and opulent flavour-combinations. Dishes range from the exotic (peach gazpacho with roasted king prawns) to the traditional (foie gras with apricots and rhubarb compote), to the inventive – lobster lasagne with wild salad. Leave room for some salty toffee ice-cream and banana sauce, or iced lavender macaroon with peach and strawberries.

Hotel bar

There's no bar as such, but staff will be happy to serve you drinks in the lounge, with a scattering of bar stools, clusters of contented guests sipping martinis, and gold-framed paintings hanging from the cream walls. The open fire and plump sofas provide extra cosiness, and the glass cabinets are filled with a gallery’s stash of ceramic Barbotines animals.

Last orders

You can linger over breakfast between 7.30am and 10am (although late risers can breakfast in their room until noon), and lunch is served between 12.30pm and 1.45pm. Dinner is dished up between 7.30pm and 9.45pm.

Room service

In-room treats can be ordered from the room service menu during the restaurant’s opening hours.

Location

Photos Le Saint Paul location
Address
Le Saint Paul
86 Rue Grande
Saint-Paul-de-Vence
06570
France

Planes

BA covers Nice Côte d’Azur airport, 20km from the hotel (www.ba.com), as does Easyjet (www.easyjet.com). The hotel can book taxis, for €55 each way.

Trains

Cagnes Sur Mer is 5km from the hotel, connecting to Nice, Antibes, Cannes, Monaco and Marseille (www.tgv.com). The hotel can arrange taxis, costing €20 each way.

Automobiles

Nice is a 30-minute drive from the hotel. A secure public carpark is located 50m from the hotel, with free parking.

Worth getting out of bed for

The Maeght Foundation in the village contains an impressive art collection. The beautiful gardens are studded with sculptures by Miro and Chillida, and there are drawings by Bonnard, Braque, Calder, Chagall, Giacometti and Léger (+33 (0)4 93 32 81 63; www.fondation-maeght.com). Buy a holiday perfume at Grasse – visit the Fragonard museum at 20 boulevard Fragonard (+33 (0)4 93 36 44 65) and you’ll even learn how your scent is made. Be sure to wander around Nice and explore the beautiful boutiques tucked away within the narrow streets. If you’re here on a Monday, head for the famous antiques market in the Cours Saleya, and stop for some food at one of the restaurants clustered around the square. Visit the Picasso museum in Antibes, inside the Grimaldi castle (+33 (0)4 92 90 54 20; www.antibes-juanlespins.com). The sea-views from the ramparts vie with the paintings for your attention. For a shot of glamour, walk the famous Croisette in Cannes, and lust after (or invest in) the designer threads. The Côte d’Azur’s coastline beckons, so pack a picnic and set off for a day of sun, sand and sea.

Local restaurants

Try some Provençal fare cooked with exotic influences at Le Tilleul Menthe, on Place du Tilleul (+33 (0)4 93 32 80 36). The starter of crisped Pont l'Évêque cheese with apples, caramel and peppered cider is the stuff of daydreams, and the tuna with wasabi and coriander is equally delicious. Sit under the century-old lime tree and admire the beautiful setting. Le Vieux Moulin on Rond Point Sainte-Claire (+33 (0)4 93 32 10 45) is a more traditional affair, with hearty specialities from Nice and Provence. The restaurant is housed in a mill dating back to the 17th century, and the menu changes daily, depending on what the chef has plucked from the market. Head to La Cocarde at 23 rue Grande (+33 (0)4 93 32 86 17), for enticing Mediterranean dishes – onion soup, feather-light omelettes, daily specials and moreish ice-cream, at prices without a sting. The legendary restaurant at the Colombe d’Or (+33 (0)4 93 32 80 02) has fine food, a stupendous art collection, and a long lead time for bookings – lunch of a lifetime is the phrase that springs to mind for this former haunt of Picasso, Matisse, Miro and Cézanne.

Local cafés

Stop for a refreshing, sherbety citron pressé at Café de la Place, on Place du Général de Gaulle (+33 0(4) 93 32 80 03), and watch the locals playing boules on the square.

Reviews

Photos Le Saint Paul reviews
Peter Ward

Anonymous review

By Peter Ward, Where is he now?

‘Welcome to Le Saint Paul! Would you care for some home-made peach iced tea and cakes?’ Could our arrival at out South of France hideaway be more delightful? We'd been greeted not just by a  warmth in the air, but we were also met from our air-conditioned Mercedes taxi by an exceptionally smart bellman with an outstretched umbrella. This has all certainly taken a dampener off the fact it isn’t the sunny weather we’d been expecting. The doorman even greeted us by name as though distant relatives before navigating us through the cobbled gallery-sprinkled backstreets to our final destination, this very special Baglioni-owned hotel.

‘I thought you said the weather will be lovely?’ my better half adds smugly. Saint-Paul de Vence, is a mere 16km from Nice, nestled in the hilltops of the Côte de Azur, so the usual vista south is to the Mediterranean Sea, and if you squint north you should see the snow-capped Alps. Hampered by slight drizzle today our view outside is restricted to the old-world fortifications that border this charming, petite French village. Mrs Smith is inside anyway, having regressed by now into a child-like state, as though in Hamley’s toy store, fascinated by the hotel's paintings and curios.

Ushered gently to the living room, we await teatime snacks, which are being hastily prepared with the same kindness a mother shares with her family after a long and tiring journey. Kicking back on a pristine, vintage couch, we take in the grand splendour of the open fireplace, feeing right at home. Mrs Smith is just suggesting it’s like being at our own wedding reception, when the hotel manager disturbs our daydream to ask whether we’re ready to go to our room.

Grabbing an extra cake on the way to the lift, we get into what must surely be the nicest-smelling elevator in the world – floral grapefruit notes emanate from its embroidered walls. ‘It’s like being Alice in Wonderland,’ trills Mrs Smith. Moments later the doors to our room swing open to reveal a grandiose dwelling, fit for royalty. ‘We must have the best room in the house,’ I exclaim. Except it’s not really a mere house, it’s a historic chateaux conversion.

What Le Saint Paul is exceedingly good at (as well as cakes that give Mr Kipling a run for his money), is combining fresh modernity with traditional provincial chic. Our bathroom is luxury-showroom-worthy, while the actual suite feels like we’ve inherited Charles de Gaulle’s parliamentary quarters. Through the windows, slate rooftops are like a sea of abstract art. It’s all as though time has stood still – although as we’re soon to find out, the boutiques and touristy stampede outside tell a different story. A rat-a-tat-tat at the door, and lo and behold the bellman is bringing us up yet another welcome treat. Seldom is anyone so spoilt in such a short space of time. Even at a luxury hotel.

Postcard-perfect Saint-Paul de Vence has a population of only 3,500, yet it attracts over 2.5 million visitors a year. Celebrated for its contemporary art, as well as the rich and famous who come here to buy it, we concede that if price tags aren’t visible on the painting we’re ogling, it is probably out of our budget. Judging by the designer handbags on display in this hilltop town, its arts is beloved by a demographic akin to that seen in South Molton Street. Chihuahuas with outfits matching their owners confirms this.

Not that this makes a dent in our appreciation of this ancient town as we window-shop our way through its labyrinthine alleys. Our enthusiastic stroll soon earns us a rest on the terrace at well-known hangout, Le Tilleul – the lime tree – where we people-watch over some refreshing Clairette de Vence. Conveniently, everything in Saint-Paul de Vence is within a stroll of our stylish stay poised in the village’s main cobbled artery.

Chef Nunzio Romano oversees the fabulous fare at Les Saint Paul, a culinary whiz, and it is advisable you book supper at the same time as you do your hotel room. Understandably, it is fully reserved in advance. On a summers’ day, the award-winning restaurant spills out into a beautiful walled garden. This leafy terrace would be a highlight if it weren’t that the food, wine and service at Le Saint Paul is also exceptional. The restaurant's interior too is special, with crypt-like stone walls and a fully functioning fountain all within the fortress walls. It makes sense that the restaurant demands you don smart attire.

An aperitif of pink champagne in hand, we order the chef’s thee-course special from a menu that promises thrills such as risotto with lobster and courgette flowers in tempura and roasted duck liver with white asparagus. What follows is in fact five courses of Modern French gastronomy. This is all helpfully washed down by tremendous hand-selected accompanying house reds. Indeed, Le Saint Paul is always full of surprises. From letting us have a late breakfast in bed the following morning to magicking us a table at fully booked world-famous La Colombe d’Or, nothing is too much trouble. For us, the only problem? That there must be an end to our romantic Alpes-Maritime escape.

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Price per night from $333.66