A hotel that looks like a pile of old boxes? Glamorous!
Well, yes, glamorous. In fact, Plage Palace may be the only new hotel in the south of France worth a two-week homecoming quarantine. Put together by those clever Costes brothers – you know the ones behind Hotel Costes, Le Marly, Georges on top of the Pompidou in Paris – it’s a delicious new bit of five-star luxury slap bang on the beach outside a funny old French resort called Palavas, not that you would know: this is hidden-away luxury. Rooms are white-on-white-on-grey then back to white with balconies big enough for lounging furniture while downstairs there’s a beautiful terrace restaurant (go for gazpacho and lobster frites) on your way past the pool to the not one but two beach bars for you to bounce between. Add a spa with a swimming-pool size jacuzzi and all the right mid-century-with-a-twist furniture in the huge lobby/lounge and we’re looking at a fantastic stop-over 20 minutes from France’s gayest town, Montpellier, and within a short drive of Arles and Avignon in this clever bit of the south of France. And no, St. Tropez is not clever even if Joan Collins does live there.
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