There is a moment, on the fourth or fifth visit to Saint-Tropez, when the village stops being the point. The clients I work with most happily are the ones who reach that moment. From there, the trip changes — it moves inland, off the coast road, into the part of the Var that no one publishes addresses about because the people who live there would rather they didn't.
What follows is, with my apologies to the locals, the short version of the list. Twenty addresses across the Var department — vineyards, country hotels, small chefs, two markets, one chapel, a single antique dealer worth the detour. Take three of them and the trip is made. Take ten and the trip becomes the one you remember.
Five vineyards to actually visit
Domaine de la Madrague (Le Castellet). Mireille Hugues makes the most precise Bandol rosé on the coast. Tasting by appointment. The cellar is in the courtyard of an eighteenth-century mas. Forty-five minutes from Saint-Tropez.
Château de Pibarnon (La Cadière-d'Azur). The reference Bandol for the long lunch. Pierre Henri de Saint-Victor's family has held the estate since 1977. Ask for the white if it is opened — it is the white of the year, every year.
Domaine Tempier (Le Plan-du-Castellet). The classic. Lulu Peyraud's home is a pilgrimage. The Cabassaou, in the right vintage, is the most thrilling red in the south of France.
Clos Mireille (La Londe-les-Maures). The white domaine of Domaines Ott. The cellar overlooks the vineyard, which overlooks the sea, which on a clear May morning is the colour of a wedding ring. Buy the magnum.
Château d'Esclans (La Motte). Yes, the producer of the Whispering Angel that has reshaped American rosé consumption. Skip the entry wines and ask for the Garrus tasting. It is the rosé that proves rosé is a serious wine.
Five tables in the hills
Chez Bruno (Lorgues). The truffle cathedral. I have written about it elsewhere. Go.
Hostellerie Bérard (La Cadière-d'Azur). A 17th-century convent turned hotel-restaurant. The Provençal kitchen of René Bérard is the kind of cooking that has all but disappeared elsewhere. Order what is on the chalkboard.
La Bastide de Marie (Ménerbes — Luberon edge). Just outside the Var, technically. Worth the hour. Lunch on the terrace under the wisteria; the menu is the garden, the wines are the cellar, the bill is honest.
La Table de Nans (La Cadière-d'Azur). Nans Gaillard, ex-Mirazur and Plaza Athénée, opened in 2017. Two Michelin stars now. The most ambitious modern Provençal cooking in the department. Book a month ahead.
Auberge du Pin (Le Castellet). The locals' lunch. Wooden tables under a single hundred-year-old pin parasol. Grilled lamb, daube, a carafe of the village wine. Forty euros a head. Do not Instagram the room.
Three country hotels
Château de Berne (Lorgues). A working vineyard with eighteen rooms and one of the best chefs in the Var, Louis Rameau. The vineyard tours are serious. The pool is the right pool. Drive to Chez Bruno for lunch on day two.
Le Mas de Pierre (Saint-Paul-de-Vence). A few minutes outside the Var, on the Alpes-Maritimes side. Forty-eight rooms, three restaurants, the most beautiful garden of any hotel in Provence. Send anyone who wants the Riviera without the Riviera.
La Bastide de Tourtour (Tourtour). The smaller, quieter option. Twenty-five rooms, a serious kitchen, a chapel view from the terrace at sunset. Stop here on the way back from Chez Bruno.
Three villages worth a half-day
Tourtour. The village in the sky. Walk the perimeter at six in the evening when the light goes flat.
Cotignac. A single street, two cafés, a small market on Tuesday morning. The Bistrot at the foot of the cliff is the lunch.
Lorgues. The Thursday market is the best in the Var. Buy the olives, the cheese, the lavender honey. Eat in the small park afterwards.
Two markets, one antique dealer, one chapel
Sanary-sur-Mer market (Wednesday morning). Voted, repeatedly, the best market in France. Get there at eight. The fish is the fish.
Aups truffle market (November through February, Thursday morning). The Var produces a third of France's black truffles. This is where they are sold. Bring cash. Eat the brouillade at the bar in the square.
Maison Brun (Lorgues). The antique dealer at the foot of the citadel. Nineteenth-century Provençal furniture, the occasional ceramic from Vallauris, the very rare object from one of the great Côte d'Azur estate sales. Catherine, who runs it, knows every piece in the shop and where it came from. Half an hour minimum.
Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Pépiole (Six-Fours-les-Plages). Sixth century. The oldest chapel in Provence. Twelve people maximum inside. The light through the apse at noon is what the South of France is, before the photographs started.
What this list is, and is not
It is not a list of secrets. The people I name above are happy to be named — most of them I have eaten and stayed with for fifteen years, and they know what kind of guest I send. What the list is, is the short version of a trip that, if you let it, will make the next three years of your travel decisions for you.
The coast is the postcard. The hills are the country. Spend the week in the country.
— Camille Vedy
