Airelles Saint-Tropez, Château de la Messardière

The Messardière is that nineteenth-century château set on the hill above Saint-Tropez, surrounded by twelve hectares of pines, cypress and rosemary, the only house in the village that commands both the bay and the vineyards. Eighty-six rooms, a thousand-square-metre Valmont spa with its adults-only pool, and some ten restaurants and bars, among them Matsuhisa for Japanese-Peruvian and the Jardin Tropezina at Pampelonne. The climb is steep, and that is precisely what protects the place. Our address when you want to be above the fray, literally.