Some fine hotels hit you over the head with their elegance. Lily of the Valley sneaks up on you. Clean-lined structures of neutral materials and hanging foliage that blend into a quiet Mediterranean hillside. Charmingly homey furnishings that look mismatched but in fact have been chosen with care and an eye to comfort as well as style. An entry lounge that opens out into a single spacious dining area aptly named Vista, where every table has a spectacular view and even the simplest salad is unmistakably a chef’s creation. A state-of-the-art wellness village where all options are available, and the choice is yours.
Lily of the Valley opened in 2019 in the hills near Saint-Tropez with an almost radical mission: to create the luxury spa-hotel experience of the future. The brainchild of the French media entrepreneur Alain Weill, and designed from the ground up by Philippe Starck, Lily of the Valley works on the guiding principle that wellness should be as natural and effortless as breathing. At Lily of the Valley, every day is a spa day, full of possibilities – and where wellness can become a way of life, during your stay and after. “Our sincerest hope,” says Stéphane Personeni, general manager of Lily of the Valley, “is that guests will come here and never want to leave.”
Here, every day is a spa day, full of possibilities – and where wellness can become a way of life, during your stay and after.
Simplicity and generosity are the watchwords at Lily of the Valley, a boutique-sized hotel (44 rooms and suites) with the amenities of a palace including a (2,000-square-meter spa). Open year-round – a rarity for an area - Lily of the Valley groups its core offerings around sports, weight loss and wellness. Labeled Discovery, Reboot, Reset or Reborn depending on their length (from 4 to 28 days), all programs take in fitness evaluations, personal trainers, and full use of the hotel’s facilities and the surrounding countryside, including the pristine Gigaro beach just down the hill. To back up the holistic approach, Lily of the Valley’s wellness manager, Diane Bernardin, works in a close triumvirate with Stéphane and executive chef Vincent Maillard. “We always want to make sure that the key elements of the experience – hospitality, wellness and cuisine - reinforce each other,” Diane says.
Even if guests do not choose to exert themselves beyond repositioning their sunbeds around the infinity pool, Lily of the Valley is still a place to discover new ways to live their best life, beginning at the table. Vincent’s fresh and delicious Provençal-inspired dishes, from his signature Lily Salad with fresh herbs and flowers to his perfect cream-filled tarte tropézienne, come beautifully presented on artisanal tableware from his impressive list of local contacts. Lily of the Valley is even reinventing hairdressing under its resident coiffeur, Fred, who trained with the best in New York and Paris and whose mantra is: “We do not transform, we reveal.”