Château Saint-Martin & Spa

Olive trees older than the hotel line the drive that climbs from Vence to Château Saint-Martin & Spa, 350 metres above the Mediterranean. The house sits on a terrace of the pre-Alps between Vence and Saint-Paul-de-Vence, with the coast spread below it between Cap d'Antibes and Nice. From the pool the eye runs straight down to the sea, and after dark the lights of Nice show to the east.

History

The name comes from the Knights Templar, who held a commandery on this hill in the twelfth century. Ruins of their walls and an old chapel survive in the grounds, and the hotel's address, Avenue des Templiers, keeps the memory. The house as it stands dates from 1936, when it was built as a hotel in the manner of a Provençal bastide, with pale stone, deep loggias and tiled roofs. It drew its post-war clientele from the Riviera's painters and film people. Vence was the town where Matisse spent his final years, and Chagall lived down the road in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. In 1994 the Oetker family added the château to the group that already held Le Bristol in Paris and Brenners Park-Hotel in Baden-Baden. Oetker Collection, as the group has been called since 2008, still runs it, alongside the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc down the coast at Antibes.

Architecture and design

The main building is a long, low house in ochre-washed stone with a pillared terrace along the south front. Rooms open onto this terrace or onto private balconies. The interiors use Provençal furniture, pale fabrics, stone floors and open fireplaces rather than gilt. The estate covers about fourteen hectares of olive groves and cypress, terraced down the hillside, and a stone path leads to the Templar ruins and the small chapel. A heated outdoor pool is set into the garden below the terrace, aligned with the view.

Rooms and suites

The château has 46 rooms and suites, with six detached villas in the grounds for families and longer stays. Each villa has its own garden and private pool. Rooms in the main house face south over the coast; the junior suites and suites have terraces large enough for breakfast outdoors. The villas are the usual choice for parties travelling with children, since the main house keeps a quiet tone.

Dining

Le Saint-Martin, the gastronomic restaurant, holds a Michelin star and serves on the terrace in summer. The cooking is Mediterranean, built on produce from the Vence hills and the Nice market. L'Oliveraie, under the olive trees by the pool, serves lunch and a simpler dinner from late spring to September; its grill and salads are the daytime choice. The bar on the terrace serves rosé from the Var as the sun goes down behind Cap d'Antibes.

Wellness

The spa works with La Prairie, the Swiss skincare house, and has treatment rooms, a hammam, a fitness studio and a terrace for outdoor massages in warm months. The heated pool is open from spring to autumn. A tennis court, a pétanque court and marked walks through the olive groves make up the rest; the hotel arranges golf at the courses around Grasse and Valbonne.

Weddings and events

The château hosts weddings, most of them in summer on the terrace and in the olive grove, with the chapel ruins as a backdrop for photographs. Private dinners are seated in the restaurant's salons or outdoors. The hotel has meeting rooms for small seminars and boards, and the villas serve as private quarters for a wedding party. Capacities depend on the season and the chosen space, and the whole property can be taken over for a celebration.

Location

Vence is about 20 kilometres from Nice Côte d'Azur airport, 30 to 40 minutes by road. The Chapelle du Rosaire, designed by Matisse between 1947 and 1951, stands in the town below. Saint-Paul-de-Vence and the Fondation Maeght are ten minutes by car. The beaches of Cagnes-sur-Mer and Antibes are half an hour away, and Monaco about an hour. Among the luxury hotels in Vence and the hills behind Nice, this is the one that looks over all of them.