The Mediterranean near Villefranche-sur-Mer
Issue N° 09 · Spring 2026
ENFRITDEES

The South of France

A journal of the Mediterranean
The Îles d’Or
48 hours · Hyères
Villa Gallici
A night in Aix
Trévallon
Cult wines · Alpilles
The Esterel
Ten secret coves
Cover Story · No 09
La Belle Vie
Forty-eight hours on the Îles d’Or, where summer never ends.
A hilltop village in Provence Cover Story · N° 09
Gordes at first light, Vaucluse — photograph by our editors.
The Grand Report · Le grand reportage

Forty-eight hours on the Îles d’Or, where summer never ends.

Words — The Editors · Hyères, Var

There is a stretch of the Var coast where the mainland loosens its grip and three islands float just offshore — Porquerolles, Port-Cros, Le Levant. We took the first boat out of La Tour Fondue, a notebook, and no return ticket. What we found was the South as it was promised: pine, salt, and the long afternoon light that painters chase and never quite catch.

Read the report — lire le reportage
The Spring Carnet · Carnet de printemps

Six discoveries our editors keep returning to.

A Provence village house under blue sky I
ProvenceStay

Hôtel Crillon le Brave

Crillon-le-Brave · Vaucluse

A perched village reimagined as a single hotel. Stone, lavender, and a pool above Mont Ventoux — the kind of place that ruins you for ordinary hotels.

Read the review
A Mediterranean harbour at golden hour II
LanguedocTable

La Table de Castigno

Assignan · Hérault

A two-star table inside a wine-village resort, where Vincent Farges plays with the Languedoc’s bounty. The most quietly inventive kitchen west of Marseille.

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Rocky red cliffs above the sea, the Esterel III
AlpillesVintner

Domaine de Trévallon

Saint-Étienne-du-Grès

Eloi Dürrbach’s mythical estate at the foot of the Alpilles. Forty years of biodynamic farming, and reds that age for thirty. Tastings by appointment.

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A coastal village on the French Riviera IV
Côte d’AzurStay

Hôtel Les Roches Rouges

Saint-Raphaël · Var

A 1950s seaside hotel rescued from kitsch — bare terrazzo, a saltwater pool cut into the rock, and the red Esterel falling straight into the blue.

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A perched Provence village seen from above V
Haute-ProvenceTable

La Bastide de Moustiers

Moustiers-Sainte-Marie · Alpes-de-Haute-Provence

Alain Ducasse’s country inn below the gorges du Verdon. A kitchen garden, a handful of rooms, and cooking that tastes of exactly where you are.

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A countryside farmhouse among wildflowers VI
CamargueStay

Le Mas de Peint

Le Sambuc · Bouches-du-Rhône

A working rice and bull farm turned discreet hotel deep in the delta. Horses at dawn, salt on the wind, and the wide pink light the painters came for.

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Five coasts, one light · Cinq pays, une lumière

Where shall we wander next?

I
Provence
Lavender, ochre and the back roads of the Luberon.
38 addresses
→
II
Côte d’Azur
From Cassis to Menton, the sea at its most theatrical.
44 addresses
→
III
Languedoc
Wild vineyards, Cathar stone and an emptier shore.
26 addresses
→
IV
Camargue
Salt flats, white horses and the wide pink light.
19 addresses
→
Our promise · Notre promesse
We write only about places we have paid for, slept in, and would return to.

Aucune publicité déguisée, aucun séjour offert. Les bonnes adresses ne se vendent pas — elles se méritent.

The Editors · Marseille