Best Western Hotel Matisse

In the heart of Sainte-Maxime on the Bay of Saint-Tropez, the Best Western Hotel Matisse, Sainte-Maxime, France, brings a wonderfully contemporary decor, a three-star with lounges, a bar, a restaurant, and a planted swimming pool, a top address for a sun-soaked holiday just a stone's throw from the sea and its sandy beaches. Drenched in the light and colour of the Mediterranean, the interior plays on blue, white, and natural wood in a graphic, modern style that nods to the painter the hotel is named for, a calm haven in the town centre with a pool ringed by Mediterranean plants. Bright, spacious rooms carry the same easy southern palette. Sainte-Maxime looks across the sparkling bay to Saint-Tropez from its own sweep of sheltered sand, an unhurried resort of palm-lined promenade and pastel facades, with the boat shuttle across the water, the cork-oak hills of the Maures behind, and the markets and beaches of the wider Gulf close by. In the evening the lights of Saint-Tropez glitter across the water.