Saint-Paul de Vence, France

Toile Blanche

Price per night from$231.02

Price information

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

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR215.53), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Au naturel artistry

Setting

Beside Saint-Paul de Vence

The creative family behind Toile Blanche hotel could not have painted a prettier picture when converting their 200-year-old farmhouse into a chic bucolic cluster of suites spread across five fragrant acres of Mediterranean gardens. The Leroy Brothers will personally bid you bienvenue while talking you through their Post-Internet art pieces hanging on the sun-bleached walls of every suite, which have been carefully curated as an extension of the contemporary gallery space downstairs. You’ll be on a first-name basis with the collectors soon enough, who have (quite literally) put their art and soul into this Riviera retreat.

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Facilities

Photos Toile Blanche facilities

Need to know

Rooms

16 suites, and one villa.

Check–Out

11.30am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 4pm.

More details

Rates exclude breakfast, but a locally-sourced spread with garden-picked produce can be enjoyed on the main restaurant terrace every morning (for €26 each).

Also

Some suites can be adapted for guests with mobility issues, but the hilly, terraced layout of the hotel might be challenging for wheelchair-users.

Please note

During the low season, the hotel's restaurant is closed on Sundays and Mondays.

At the hotel

Art gallery, boutique, kitchen garden, bikes to borrow, and free WiFi. In rooms: Bluetooth speaker, smart TV, air-conditioning, gourmet minibar (exclusively stocked with local, organic products), board games and playing cards, bean-to-cup coffee machine, tea-making kit, bathrobe and slippers, and Les Choses Simples bath products.

Our favourite rooms

The Leroy Brothers tried out over 40 different bed brands before settling on the Parisian-crafted Tréca mattresses, so a great night’s sleep is guaranteed in whichever art-filled suite you opt for. The gardens in the split-level Suite Cabanat are particularly idyllic (and come with an outdoor shower and cabana), but it’s worth plumping for the Suite du Bon-Vivant or Villa du Pénéquet (the name rather pleasingly derives from the Provençal for ‘power-nap’) if you’d like a private pool.

Poolside

Linen-clad guests saunter through lavender-filled gardens between the two outdoor pools (known as Pool Artiste and Pool Toile Blanche, both open for round-the-clock dips). Lemon trees dotted around the day-beds fill the air with a heady, citrus scent, giving you a taste of the garden-grown herb-infused cocktails which can be delivered straight to your sunlounger at the drop of a straw hat.

Spa

Your spacious suite doubles as a private wellness area, for soothing massages and alfresco yoga sessions on your sun-kissed terrace.

Packing tips

You can’t really be overdressed for the French Riviera (especially if you’re heading into glitzy Cannes or Saint-Tropez), but it’s more toned-down around the hotel’s rustic grounds so bring some flash and floaty options. The hilly surrounds and cobblestone towns demand some sensible flats.

Also

Ask the Leroy Brothers about their insider art-route around Saint-Paul de Vence.

Children

Welcome, but mostly designed with grown-ups in mind. Babysitting can be pre-booked (preferably ahead of your stay) for €20 an hour.

Sustainability efforts

Rooted in its farmhouse origins, Toile Blanche keeps food miles to a minimum by hand-picking fruit, vegetables, and herbs from its aromatic gardens, and sourcing market-fresh produce from local suppliers for the kitchen and minibars. You’ll find eco-friendly amenities in the bathrooms, and every time you skip your suite-cleaning service, the hotel plants a tree in partnership with global reforestation charity, Hotels for Trees.

Food and Drink

Photos Toile Blanche food and drink

Top Table

Any of the alfresco tables on Le Restaurant’s elevated terrace – you can spot Saint-Paul de Vence in the distance.

Dress Code

Espadrilles are encouraged, but dining barefoot also goes here.

Hotel restaurant

Gather for light, languid lunches and perfectly-pale rosé à la piscine at La Guinguette (open daily between 1pm and 3pm). The generous sharing plates are best enjoyed on the rustic terrace, beneath boho woven lampshades gently swaying in the breeze. Le Restaurant is ever-so-slightly on the dressier side, although the atmosphere is still wonderfully relaxed, and the chefs take the same care on sourcing produce from local farmers and fishermen – to accompany their bountiful kitchen-garden supply of greens. Tables here are booked up weeks in advance during high season (we blame the garlic-butter-soaked giant gambas) so it’s worth making your meal reservations well ahead of time.

Hotel bar

Zesty cocktails (infused with lavender leaves, rosemary, and citrus fruits gathered from the gardens) and chilled bottles of local rosé flow freely on the valley-facing terrace.

Last orders

Breakfast is from 8am to 11am, lunch is from 1pm to 3pm, and dinner starts from 7pm.

Room service

There’s no in-suite dining menu, which only encourages you to savour the views all the more from the restaurant terraces.

Location

Photos Toile Blanche location
Address
Toile Blanche
826 Chemin de la Pounchounière
Saint-Paul-de-Vence
06570
France

Stand your easel in the garden and you can paint Saint-Paul de Vence from Toile Blanche, which is just a seven-minute drive from the French Riviera’s most artsy hilltop village.

Planes

Nice Côte d'Azur is the closest international airport, which is just 15 minutes by car. The hotel can help to arrange transfers for €60 one-way.

Trains

Gare de Cagnes-sur-Mer is also a 15-minute drive from the hotel, and connects you to Cannes, Antibes, and Nice if you’re doing the Riviera by rail. Transfers can be booked for €35 one-way.

Automobiles

The hotel can hook you up with a set of vintage wheels, and offers free on-site private parking.

Worth getting out of bed for

The nearby village perché of Saint-Paul de Vence has long drawn (and been drawn by) French artists – becoming a regular haunt for Chagall, Picasso, Matisse, and other world-famous names. The mediaeval village is brimming with old-world charm and hosts regular open-air exhibitions, in-between slow-paced games of pétanque with the art-loving locals. The Maeght Foundation is a modern art mecca, with monumental sculpture-scattered gardens by abstract heavyweights, Miró and Chillida. The pretty, perfumery town of Grasse (pick up some Provençal scents and soaps from Musée Fragonard), seaside resort Antibes (Musée Picasso is housed within the 17th-century Château Grimaldi), and glamorous Cannes are all easy day-trips from Toile Blanche. Ask the hotel about the local markets, as there’s usually one each day of the week – just be sure to arrive early in the morning if you want the best pick of the produce.

Local restaurants

Heading into Saint-Paul de Vence for the evening gives you an array of artsy, alfresco dining options. Huddled into the hillside, the vine-tangled terrace at Les Remparts is a laidback locally-approved spot to watch the sunset over authentic Provençal plates, like pine-roasted Mediterranean vegetables tossed in honey vinaigrette, and homemade truffle-stuffed ravioli. Take a bistro-style seat on the sun-soaked, leafy patio at Le Tilleul, for simple, slow food and an impressively-stocked wine cellar specialising in regional labels. There’s also the legendary La Colombe d’Or, a Roux-family run restaurant where Matisse, César, and their artist friends once exchanged their paintings for dinner reservations.

Local cafés

Spend a slow morning at Café de la Place, a quaint little eatery which overlooks the boules square in Saint-Paul de Vence.

Local bars

The Old Town and Port in nearby Nice have a buzzing nightlife, attracting more of a late-night crowd than quieter Saint-Paul de Vence. Cave Romagnan regularly hosts live jazz and open-mic poetry nights, and its bottle-jammed wine cellar is one of the oldest in the city. Try Les Distilleries Idéales for draught beer and rustic charcuterie and cheese boards to share.

Reviews

Photos Toile Blanche reviews
Mitchell Belk

Anonymous review

By Mitchell Belk, Stylist with staying power

For those of you juggling a freelance schedule, house renovation and a two-year-old determined to live up to the ‘terrible’ stereotype, you’ll appreciate that a child-free minibreak with my other half sounded like the stuff dreams are made of – no pressure on our South of France getaway to deliver, then. The joys of child-free travel came flooding back from the get-go. Watching a couple with a screaming toddler negotiate the queue at passport control squashed any regrets we may have felt for leaving ours behind. Guilt-free, we landed in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region; and, what felt like mere minutes after stepping off the plane, a driver our hotel had kindly organised dropped us off at centuries-old farmhouse-turned-hotel Toile Blanche, where the unwind could begin.
 
It’s hard not to fall into an instant sense of serenity at Toile Blanche. A personal welcome at the gate and a smooth check-in instantly made us feel like we were staying with the kind of ‘estate-owning friends’ everyone wishes they had. After a quick tour of the rustic yet manicured grounds we were left to our own devices, and in the time it took for me to drop our bags, Mr Smith was half undressed and spread out like a basking lizard on a sunlounger in our rose-clad private terrace.
 
Neutrally hued decor and the sound of birdsong add to the sense of calm here – it was the antithesis of the plastic debris, kids’ show jingles and overall chaos we experience on a daily basis at home. I was already getting excited about the humongous bed that demanded at least a 12-hour sleep – yes, sleep! But I was already near-somnambulant at that point, as we’d booked massages on arrival – an absolute luxury thanks to Amandine, who’s been lowering guests’ stress levels here for the last 14 years. We took ours in the intimacy of our room, which was complete bliss (FYI Amandine’s services are cash only, so be sure to make a pit-stop at the ATM at Nice airport beforehand).
 
But before sleep, there was food to be had. In low season the hotel restaurant closes on Mondays, but this gave us an excuse to explore what mediaeval commune Saint-Paul de Vence (beloved by Picasso, Sartre, James Baldwin and other creative sorts) had to offer. A cocktail at the hotel bar was definitely in order before dinner. There’s nothing quite like the kickstart of a negroni to get the blood pumping for the 20-minute uphill walk into town – not for the faint-hearted, but you’re well-rewarded on arrival. This ancient village had numerous passageways and cobbled streets that led to little squares and arresting vistas – altogether an absolute delight. We ate at picturesque restaurant Le Tilleul in one of the main squares, and on this perfect late summer’s evening felt like characters from a Woody Allen movie without the imminent love-triangle drama.
 
Back at Toile Blanche the next day – and not being ones for closing curtains – we woke to soft sunlight, nursing a fogginess from the previous night’s rosé and the heaviness of a very good night’s sleep, delighted that breakfast awaited us on the terrace. Both Mr Smith and I are a sucker for a croissant and the French did not disappoint. Maybe it’s eating them against a backdrop of rolling Provençal hills that instantly makes everything taste better…who knows? With lunch booked at the nearby La Colombe D’or, we tried not to overindulge in fresh fruit, bread baskets, cheeses, yoghurt and granola. However, sitting there, peacefully drinking my coffee – having given in and eaten everything in sight – watching clouds float off to reveal bright blue sky, I questioned why we would bother to visit anywhere else.
 
Our real lives briefly crept back in after lunch, as I thought about how much our son would have loved the pool; with two to choose from there would have been plenty of splashing about. The hotel does cater for children and I know our son would have been more than welcome; however they try to limit the number of under-16s in respect for honeymooners or those looking for tranquility. But Mr Smith did his best job of jumping in like a carefree child himself while I freshened up in our to-die-for rainfall shower. Call me old-fashioned, but I love an excuse to get a little dressed up in the evening, and as it was our last night we decided to eat at the hotel. Low-key but refined, the food was delicious; especially the prawns in a black-garlic reduction. Sitting on the rooftop terrace, you dine against a backdrop of twinkling lights from the buildings dotting the surrounding hillsides and to the sound of trickling water from the fountain below. It was magical. 
 
As our break drew to a close, we were sad that it had come around so soon. I spoke with Caroline, one of the owners, who told me excitedly about upcoming renovations over the winter period – a new restaurant interior, and upgrades to the pool, bar, the villas and dedicated spa area – which made the prospect of returning to this slice of heaven even more tempting. There’s no denying that Saint-Paul de Vence was, and still is, a haven for artists, and the hotel name Toile Blanche seems relatively apt considering it offers a holistic ‘palette cleanse’ – and it’s owned by artists the Leroy Brothers, with numerous examples of their work decorating each room – but thinking of this place as simply a ‘blank canvas’ doesn’t do it justice.
 
This is no hotel void of life – I found it layered with familial friendliness and casual charm and vibrant with nature. Staff even offered to have a tree planted instead of having your room cleaned for a day, showing one of the ways this hotel is as invested in the community and the planet as they are their guests. We headed back to the airport with a renewed vigour, ready to tackle potty-training on our return (you really can go from the lap of luxury to knee deep in poop in the space of a few hours) and were grateful that in the trying times ahead, we had the comfort of looking back on our days at Toile Blanche and feeling so grateful for the chance to reset in the sort of warm embrace grown-ups and parents desperately need from time to time.

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Price per night from $221.15