by Mayté Rodríguez Cedillo
photos Courtesy Hotel La Ponche

THE RIVIERA IS WAKING UP

Reopening of the La Ponche Hotel – every spring, it’s the same moment. The light returns to caress the ochre facades, the scent of the sea
fills the alleys, and the Riviera remembers what it knows how to do.

In Saint-Tropez, La Ponche returns to its neighborhood on March 26: its cobblestone streets where shadow and light have been playing for centuries, its secret beach, its bar that has seen nights no one has quite forgotten.

The season can finally begin.

HÔTEL LA PONCHE SAINT-TROPEZ REOPENING ON MARCH 26

La Ponche is unlike any palace. No monumental lobby, no doorman in formal attire.

You arrive through a narrow alley, push open a door, and the hotel is there, nestled in the old village, as if it has always been there. Which is true, in a way. There has never been a guestbook at La Ponche. It was the philosophy of the place since its beginnings in 1938.

An active, almost militant discretion, which perhaps explains why everyone kept coming back. Simone Duckstein, who grew up within these walls, remembers the stars deboarding sleepily from the Train Bleu in Saint-Raphaël, heading to Saint-Tropez because it was a «little paradise.»

They were greeted with hot coffee and slices of toasted bread. She also remembers Françoise Sagan arriving in her Jaguar, the Bardot-Vadim romance unraveling under Trintignant’s gaze during the filming of And God Created Woman, and Boris Vian who loved to pass behind the bar between two trumpet notes to serve his friends: Daniel Gélin, Michel Piccoli, Jean-Paul Sartre.

From room 19, Sagan wrote these words that remain in the house’s file: «I opened the shutters, and the sea and the sky threw the same blue, the same pink, the same happiness at my face.»

A HOUSE OF LEGEND

The rooms still bear their names. Each dark walnut door is an address within the address. You can invite yourself into room 8 of Romy Schneider and Daniel Biasini, on the top floor, a terrace as large as the room, suspended over the rooftops of Saint-Tropez, the bell tower, and the sea.

In room 1, that of Brigitte Bardot and Gunter Sachs.

In room 20, that of Bernard Buffet and Annabel. Each occupant, loyal to their room number rather than to a single season.

It is in this spirit that Fabrizio Casiraghi approached the renovation in 2021. His starting point was not a hotel but a story: «A man in his forties inherits his grandmother’s house.» He is going to turn it into a vacation home. He scours for objects, armchairs, and lighting fixtures.

Just think of the South, the idleness. A bit of Capri. But above all, Saint-Tropez. The terracotta tiles, the Persian rugs in the hallways, the Picasso lithographs at the reception, the round walnut mirrors resembling a ship’s wheel…

nothing tries to impress.

Its 21 rooms, its apartments, and its new House stretch out in this preserved heart of the village. The House, which joins the hotel’s offerings this year, is a world apart: 240 m², a rooftop open to the bell tower and the Mediterranean, a large table around which everyone gathers. You arrive, you take possession of the place.

Saint-Tropez starts here.

A SPIRIT OF ART AND CELEBRATION

For a long time, Saint-Tropez was an annex of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Not really all of Saint-Tropez, but rather the La Ponche neighborhood, and more precisely its bar. Boris Vian would pass behind the counter between two trumpet notes. There was in this place the conviction that the night can be intellectual, that celebration and thought do not oppose each other. This spirit has never really left the place.

Every Thursday at 8 PM, starting May 14, Martin Brucker and Nino Martinez will revive the carefree spirit of the Roaring Twenties with vinyl records: the SAINT-GERMAIN evenings kick off the season in style.

On May 29, the fifth edition of the Literary Prize La Ponche will bring together literature enthusiasts, journalists, and artists around a simple conviction: there are French novels that one might miss because they arrive too early for the major literary seasons.

La Ponche makes room for them. The jury (Lisa Vignoli (president), David Foenkinos, Nathalie Azoulai, Sophie Fontanel, Inès de la Motte
Saint-Pierre, Chrystele Gozlan, François Samuelson, Arthur Larrue, François Langlade, Élodie Garamond, and Vanessa Trigano) will meet in the hotel before the winner signs their book. A spring
prize.

A TABLE FACING THE SEA

Facing the fishing port, La Ponche also rediscovers its table rituals.
Chef Simon Pinault, trained notably at Galanga de Monsieur George, where he contributed to earning the first Michelin star in 2023, takes the helm of the kitchens. His cuisine is sunny, generous, and driven by local products: red tuna and centrolophus caught in the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, regional vegetables, the vibes of the market. Faithful to the house’s tradition, La Ponche’s bouillabaisse also returns, simmered for two, like a secret to share.

In the morning, breakfast is served on the terrace facing the dock in the light of the early hours.

At noon, a new brunch menu takes over from 12 PM to 3 PM.

At 3 PM, orange blossom waffles, chocolate fondant, ice cream sticks, red fruits…

The afternoon snack at La Ponche, little pleasures of the South,
to be savored on the terrace or by the water. In the evening, the tables are set, the candles are lit, and the flavors become deeper.

A REFUGE FOR THE BODY

Before the village awakens, there is a suspended hour at La Ponche. You receive your detox infusion in the calm of the still-sleeping house. We descend the hotel steps, cross the small pier, and unroll our mat
facing the sea. The first sun salutation, eyes on the horizon, the sound of water as the only measure, this is where the day begins, starting at 7:30 AM, with gentle yoga, dynamic yoga, or Pilates.

At the spa, this season marks a first: La Ponche inaugurates the very first PERS wellness space, and the first collaboration of the French brand with a hotel. PERS was born in the office of an esthetic doctor, after three years of research and development, with a clear ambition: to reconcile scientific rigor and the pleasure of care.

Their protocol is based on four actions: Protect, Beautify, Repair, Stimulate, condensed into a necessary and sufficient routine, formulated with the best dermo-cosmetic active ingredients, clinically tested, Made in France. A medical language, an immediate sensorial experience: this is exactly the spirit of La Ponche.

In November, when Saint-Tropez regains its gentle light and silence, the house will host a wellness retreat conceived by Magoma and Élodie Garamond, from November 7 to 11: daily yoga, body enhancement practices, and moments of silence.