hotelier Valéry grégo transforms a fifties motel into the French riviera destination
The coolest new hotel on the Côte d’azur is everything the flashy crush of French Riviera crowds are not looking for. Welcome to Hotel Les Roches Rouge
Like many summer playgrounds that were the peak of secret jet set chic 50 years ago, the côte d’azur has become choked with tacky resorts and pseudo Fitzgerald-type villa hotels that miss the boat for the discerning, design-choosy traveller in need of a stylish, low-key yet high-end hip bolt hole on the coast with the most. hotel Les roches rouge, in saint-raphaël, an hour from nice by car, is exactly that.
revamped by visionary hotelier
Valéry grégo and Parisian designers of the moment, Festen, this formerly dilapidated motel from the fifties is a secret and effortlessly cool gem away from the madding crowds of cannes and saint-tropez, but with all the Mediterranean-ness you crave. a dazzling warm sea, views, great food, luxe people spotting, curated summer Frenchiness and the emotional luxury of rebooting in the south of France’s stunningly sensual natural setting all await.
There are 48 rooms – simple, super-chic, some sea-facing, some garden-facing, and a thrall of almost open-air communal spaces that include lounges, libraries and restaurants that riff on the clean, modernist lines of eileen gray’s e-1027 villa on the same coast, which you can visit
(8 capmoderne.com). The interiors are Festen’s signature style of retro craft, noble materials and vintage. In this case inspired by the storied artist studios of Provence and a delicious palette of red-rock terrazzo, polished concrete and tobacco, tawny tones of oak and leather and rattan. But there is a refreshingly non-nostalgic air to it that inspires a feeling of freedom and prospect in experiencing a mindfully unique holiday digs. Hotel Les Roches Rouge n 8 hotellesrochesrouges.com; Festen 8 festenarchitecture.com