Villa Gallici

Villa Gallici is a Relais & Châteaux five-star hotel set in a restored eighteenth-century villa on a wooded hill ten minutes' walk from the old town. The dining room. Opened in the current format after the 2019 refurbishment under the Baumanière group. Is the reason the villa books out in May.

The room itself is the point. A terracotta terrace frames a pool and a garden of cypress, olive and lavender; in warmer months you dine under a white awning with the chirr of cicadas and the scent of rosemary. Indoors, the dining room is a Florentine-style salon. Damask walls, gilt mirrors, hand-painted ceiling, a fireplace in winter. It is genuinely beautiful, not theme-parked.

Chef Christophe Gavot cooks a refined, deeply Provençal menu. Bouillabaisse arrives as a clear amber consommé with a single langoustine and a rouille tuile; roasted pigeon from the Alpilles is served with a tart cherry jus; a tomato tart deconstructs with three varieties and a basil sorbet. The sommelier runs one of the best Bandol and Château Simone selections in the region.

The menu is à la carte with a seasonal tasting option (seven courses at €165; pairings €90). Lunch on the terrace is. In peak summer. One of the prettiest meals on offer in Provence.

Villa Gallici is engineered for a proposal. The terrace at sunset, the scent of cypress, the softness of the light through the awning, the staff's well-practiced instinct for discretion. They will happily hide a ring in a dessert, deliver champagne on a pre-agreed signal, and photograph the moment without making a scene. Few rooms in Europe are more naturally suited to a single, enormous question.