Villa La Coste

A Louise Bourgeois spider stands in a pool of water in front of Tadao Ando's concrete art centre, and the vines of Château La Coste rise behind it towards the Luberon. The Irish developer Paddy McKillen bought this estate at Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, north of Aix-en-Provence, in 2002 and spent the following years inviting architects and artists to build in it. Villa La Coste, the hotel he added at the top of the hill in 2017, is the way to stay inside the result.

History

Château La Coste is an old Provençal wine estate of about 200 hectares, with a bastide and vineyards that had been planted for centuries. McKillen, who also owns London's Claridge's group of hotels in partnership and the Hôtel Marignan in Paris, rebuilt the winery with Jean Nouvel and opened the art centre by Tadao Ando in 2011, with a walk through the grounds past works by Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, Richard Serra, Andy Goldsworthy, Tracey Emin and Ai Weiwei. Frank Gehry's music pavilion, Renzo Piano's gallery, a pavilion by Oscar Niemeyer completed after his death and a gallery by Richard Rogers followed. The hotel opened in 2017 with 28 suites, and a second group of villas has been added since.

Architecture and design

The hotel sits on the crest of the hill above the art centre, a cluster of low pavilions in pale stone and glass arranged around courtyards, pools and olive trees, so that each suite reads as a villa of its own. Interiors are spare: limestone floors, oak, linen, large works of contemporary art on loan from the estate's collection. The approach is through the vines on a track, with the Niemeyer pavilion and Ando's chapel visible on the way.

Rooms and suites

The 28 villa suites each have a private terrace or garden facing the Luberon or the Montagne Sainte-Victoire, and several have their own pool. Living areas open fully onto the terrace. The largest, a villa of several bedrooms with its own pool and staff, is let as a single unit. The estate also lets a handful of larger villas by the week.

Dining

Hélène Darroze at Villa La Coste, opened in 2020 in the hotel's main pavilion, holds a Michelin star and serves a menu built on the estate's kitchen garden and the markets of Aix. Francis Mallmann, the Argentine chef of open-fire cooking, has run a restaurant on the estate since 2018, with meat and vegetables cooked over wood fires in a garden setting. Down the hill, the art centre has its own café and the Terrace restaurant by the Ando building. The estate's wines, organic and biodynamic, are served throughout.

Wellness

The spa occupies a pavilion of its own with an indoor pool, treatment rooms, a sauna and a hammam, and there is an outdoor heated pool for residents. The 200 hectares of the estate are open for walks and runs, with the art walk itself taking around two hours.

Weddings and events

The estate hosts weddings and private events in a manner few places can match: a ceremony in the Ando chapel, a dinner in the Gehry pavilion or on the terrace of the art centre, a reception at the winery, and the hotel taken over as a whole for the guests. Seminars use the hotel's meeting room and the galleries. Capacities vary by venue and are confirmed by the estate's events team.

Location

Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade is a village north of Aix-en-Provence, about twenty minutes by car from the town centre and the TGV station, which is three hours from Paris. Marseille-Provence airport is around 45 minutes. The Luberon villages of Lourmarin and Cucuron are half an hour north. Among the luxury hotels of the Aix countryside, Villa La Coste is the one where the art is the reason for the journey and the vines are the backdrop.