The Best South of France Hotels and Restaurants for an Art-Filled Escape

The artists who began frequenting La Colombe d’Or in the 1920s often traded their work for food and lodging. Today the boho-chic hotel is filled with priceless works, from the Calder mobile by the pool to the Fernand Léger mosaic on the restaurant’s terrace. The art and architecture are more contemporary at Toile Blanche, a boutique hotel with its own sculpture park and suites with private pools, run by artists turned hoteliers Gilles, Gregory, and Nicolas Leroy, who make art together as the Leroy Brothers. The top spot for lunch in the area is the museum restaurant Sous Les Pins, in the garden of the Fondation Maeght, operated by the team behind the popular Nice restaurant Les Agitateurs.

Food pilgrims flock to chef Mauro Colagreco’s three-Michelin-starred Mirazur for some of the most sustainable fine dining in France, highlighting hyperseasonal ingredients from the restaurant’s gardens. Colagreco will open a hotel across the street next year, featuring interventions by different artists in each of its 11 suites. Until then, the best hotel in the area remains the Maybourne Riviera, which clings to the rock face above Monaco, with a Louise Bourgeois sculpture in the lobby and an infinity pool cascading into the horizon.

The COMO Hotels and Resorts group made its debut on the Riviera this spring by revamping a historic resort, Le Beauvallon, which first opened in 1914 and overlooks the Gulf of Saint-Tropez. The property features more than 300 art installations, including architect Toyo Ito’s 2002 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, installed near the waterfront restaurant, Beauvallon Sur Mer, led by the Michelin-starred chef Yannick Alléno. The accommodations are a bit more rustic at La Rouvière, the former farmhouse turned cozy guesthouse on the Commanderie de Peyrassol wine estate. Chez Jeannette, the ambitious restaurant attached to the winery, holds a Michelin star.

At Le Negresco, which opened in 1913, the extensive art collection includes sculptures by Niki de Saint Phalle and a Rubens in the new penthouse suite. Recent updates to this Art Nouveau landmark include a new beach restaurant, N La Plage; the Michelin-starred flagship restaurant Le Chantecler offers modern Mediterranean cuisine by acclaimed chef Virginie Basselot. Meanwhile, the two-year-old Hôtel du Couvent, housed in a former 17th-century convent near the port, offers country French decor from Paris firm Festen, a citrus garden, and a spa inspired by a Roman bathhouse. The hotel’s farm outside the city supplies both the casual Le Bistrot des Serruriers and the more formal Le Restaurant du Couvent.

Many rooms at the all-suite Villa La Coste, Château La Coste’s flagship hotel, include private pools. New chef Florent Pietravalle, who last ran a Michelin-starred restaurant in Avignon, offers haute Provençal cuisine at the hotel restaurant, Louison. There is also a Francis Mallmann Argentinian steakhouse on the property.

The Mas du Langoustier, the best of the limited accommodations on Porquerolles, overlooks a secluded cove, with a top-notch seafood restaurant, La Pinède, known for its grilled lobster. Lunch is also available throughout the summer at Le Poisson Ivre, located at the Villa Carmignac.

The guest rooms at L’Arlatan are immersive art installations, with every detail conceived by Cuban-American artist Jorge Pardo in collaboration with Maja Hoffmann for the Maisons d’Arles hospitality group. Hoffmann also runs the iconic Grand Hôtel Nord-Pinus, the recently revamped bohemian retreat visited by everyone from Pablo Picasso and Jack Kerouac to Helmut Newton and Peter Beard. Celebrated chef Armand Amal offers ambitious tasting menus at Hoffmann’s Michelin-starred restaurant, La Chassagnette, sourcing ingredients from its picturesque garden. For a casual lunch, visit the Drum Café at LUMA, conceived by Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija as a communal gathering spot.