AREV St. Tropez: The talk of the town in the French Riviera

It takes time to become a Tropezian institution – just not a long time in the case of Brigitte Bardot. The actress was just 21 when her kicking up the sand on Pampelonne Beach for the film And God Created Woman put the sleepy fishing village of Saint-Tropez on the map. In the 70 years since, Saint-Tropez's renown has become inseparable from that of the young woman who made it famous in 1956. You will see Bardot's smouldering features in shops, gallery windows, in the gold statue of her sitting toute nue in a clam shell on the Place Blanqui… and staring back at you as you sip your Gin Sniper at Q's Bar at the impossibly chic AREV St. Tropez hotel on the Chemin des Vendanges.

AREV St. Tropez is also young – it opened in March 2024. And, like the youthful Bardot, this luxury boutique hotel is already making a name for itself. It amused me to find a polite notice on the hotel's website under “Guest Conduct”, asking guests to refrain from taking “any photos or videos in the general area of any celebrity”. English translation – if you see a celebrity, stay calm! Did I see a celebrity during my stay? I couldn't possibly say. One must take after the locals and affect an air of nonchalance when in the presence of stardom – even when your fingernails are scratching at the phone in your pocket. Anyway, this is Saint-Tropez. Celebrities are a feature of the landscape, much like the plane trees in the Place des Lices.

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All of which is to say AREV St. Tropez is charming and it has not gone unnoticed. The hotel is a love letter to the French Riviera of the Bardot era. Under those same plane trees on the Place des Lices, a seven-minute stroll from the hotel, pétanque balls are still tossed, pastis is still sipped and on Tuesday and Saturday mornings a busy market is held attracting locals and visitors alike. AREV St. Tropez has created its own homage to the Place des Lices in its Place des Oliviers in the hotel's gardens, complete with vintage Citroën. The hotel is open year-round and, when the weather is bad the pick of the market stalls are brought to the hotel for the convenience of guests. At the Place des Oliviers, you can concoct your own scent at a perfume-making workshop run by local brand Maison ST. You will also find the brand's products in the hotel spa.

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That's not all. The Strand restaurant revives the name and ambience of a bygone village favourite, now closed, but with a faintly nautical twist in the decor. On the menu, you will find simple yet creative Mediterranean dishes, such as wild sea bream, served with a light and airy verbena bisque emulsion; grilled blue lobster; and Charolais fillet steak, which is a muscular breed typical of France.

Before sitting down to dinner, you might like to take a cold glass of rosé on the Mediterranean garden terrace. You can even visit the vineyard on an excursion to the nearby Fondugues-Pradugues estate. Or – rewinding further – you can take part in an olive oil tasting beside a 500-year-old olive tree, led by the hotel's master gardener, who says a shot of olive oil sets you up for an evening of cocktails and wine.

AREV St. Tropez's focal point and an icon in the making is its long swimming pool, which has the words “A Rêve In The Sun” spelled out in large letters on the bottom (Rêve means “dream” in French – the hotel's name is a playful pun). It reminds me of the pool at the Hotel Bel-Air in California, which became famous from the 1950s onwards as much for its stylish setting as for the glamorous people lounging around it. Around the corner from the main pool, there is a second, smaller outside pool in front of my junior suite, which is part of an even newer section of the hotel. All of the hotel's interiors were designed by Luis Bustamante, the Madrid-based designer who also decorated the Embassy Gardens development in London. The bold blue and red stripes – the hotel's colours – continues the nautical theme, while at the same time being very French. The bathroom is large with a bath and separate shower, and outside, via the bedroom, there is a cosy private terrace.

AREV St. Tropez is a welcome retreat from what used to be a fishing village, but is now a glamorous seaside resort town that gets quite busy in summer. Spring is an ideal time to visit. You can dine at the lovely La Petite Plage restaurant on the Quai Jean Jaurès, or join the coastal path, a short walk from the hotel, for wonderful views over the Golfe de Saint-Tropez. The route takes you past the Cimetière Marin, where you can pause with the small crowd of well-wishers who have come to pay their respects to Bardot, who passed away right at the end of last year, at the age of 91. Bardot lived in the area for most of her life and, if anything, the aura she gave to Saint-Tropez has only grown brighter with the passing of the decades. I suspect that years from now AREV St. Tropez will also have become a true local icon.

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AREV St. Tropez is an icon in the making