Cosmopolitan UK — June 2017

Grace Jones-style

headdress: encouraged

Jack Nicholson and Cher

at the hotel in the ’70s

THIS: sure to up your

Instagram game

Impress/distress

on the dance floor

at Les Caves

COSMOPOLITAN · 157

HÔTEL BYBLOS,

SAINT-TROPEZ

SO IT’S A NON-STOP
PARTY HOTEL, YOU SAY?
Well, yes and no. By day,
this iconic hotel (which
celebrates 50 years in the
business this summer) is
a lesson in restrained chic.
Waltz by the heated
outdoor pool and you’ll
find some of the most
expensive bodies in the
world supine under
gleaming white parasols.
(Seriously, look closer
and those actually are the
legs of one of fashion’s
highest-paid supermodels.)
The hotel is arranged as
a series of pastel-hued
villas, the inhabitants of
which are some of the
most famous names in the
world. Not that you’d ever
know, of course. You’ll
get a smile as bright as the
sun from the
hugely
democratic
hotel staff,
whether you’re
Beyoncé
(a regular,
naturally) or
just normal
Becky from
Hull. By night,
however,

everything changes.

Sun hats are dislodged,

sunglasses are pulled

down and bottles of Dom

Pérignon the size of

10-week-old babies are

cradled across the dance

floor at the hotel’s

nightclub, Les Caves Du

Roy. Les Caves, as regulars

call it, is one of the

most famous

nightclubs in the

world. Everyone

from Mick and

Bianca Jagger

(they spent their

honeymoon hidden

away at the hotel

back in 1971) to

P Diddy and George

Clooney have thrown

some moves under its

electric palm trees.

AND WHAT’S THE

CROWD LIKE?

A mixed bag of high-

society, expensively coiffed,

chino-loving

Euro-toffs,

bashful tech

billionaires trying

desperately to catch

the eyes of the on-site

supermodel quotient, as

well as nice, normal people

who have saved up

all year to be here.

WHAT SHOULDN’T

I MISS?

Saint-Tropez gets

a bit of a bad rep

for being all fur

and €500 knickers.

But at its heart it’s

still a pretty fishing

village with plenty

of quiet, quaint

corners to explore. Buy

a tarte Tropézienne (a

brioche bun filled with

crème pâtissière) from

L’Amie Du Pain before

popping into the K Jacques

store a few streets along

for a pair of its handmade

leather sandals. Take tea

in the courtyard of the

Christian Dior shop, or

✈MAKE IT HAPPEN

British Airways (Ba.com)

and Easyjet (Easyjet.

com) fly direct from

London to Saint-Tropez.

Hôtel Byblos from €340

per night; Byblos.com

ride the bus to

the Ramatuelle

• here you can do a coastal
  walk that takes in secluded
  beaches, gin-clear seas and,
  of course, French nudists.

AND WHEN I’M DONE

WITH ALL THAT?

Head to Byblos’s Sisley

spa, and have your body

pressed by kind-eyed

therapists. Then glide

down for evening drinks

and food at the hotel’s

Rivea restaurant. It is said

the lantern-lit trees offer

the most flattering light

in the whole of Saint-

Tropez. So, you know, not a

bad place to hang if you’re

hoping to catch Leonardo

DiCaprio’s eye. i