Perched on a hill in the middle of a nature reserve and overlooking the azure blue of St Tropez Bay, La Réserve Ramatuelle is a temple to Zen wellbeing that takes a very French approach to bootcamp beauty, serving it with a side order of Michelin-star gourmet dining.
The establishment’s restaurant has been inspired by the cuisine of one of France’s most decorated chefs: Michel Guérard, who is credited with creating Nouvelle Cuisine and then adapting those recipes to give rise to another cooking style.
Minceur cuisine, or skinny cooking, is a less heart-attack-inducing relative that celebrates all that is good about French cooking but uses less fattening ingredients.
Chef Eric Canino trained under Guérard and was recently awarded a Michelin for his efforts at La Voile, the resort's restaurant. Cream is off the menu but every dish that remains is a feast for the eyes, with many of the plates dressed with nasturtiums and borage flowers from the garden.
The food resembles nothing you’ve ever had on a traditional health farm. While indulgent, the Mediterranean-flavoured tasting menu, which includes bluefin tuna, milk-fed lamb and creamed and popped corn for desert, will leave you feeling sated rather than foie gras goose-full.
Your virtuous state of mind might be corrupted by a wine list that includes bottles from the hotel group's own vineyard and Miraval, the well-reviewed wines made by the estate of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
A night in a marshmallow bed readies you for the anti-ageing boot camp, a term that inspires nothing but dread and caused this writer to wake at the crack of dawn, just in time to see a blood orange-coloured sun rise above Cap Camarat, turning the lavender horizon a perfect shade of periwinkle blue.
Boot camp begins with some simple stretching exercises on the roof, where the spectacular views compete with another spectacular vista: Benjamin, the naturally tanned instructor with playboy good looks. No drill sergeant barking orders here – Benjamin possesses a manner that had grown women swooning and signing up for dozens of treks to be in his company. The expedition begins with a downhill tramp to the sea through rocky outcrops, all part of a nature reserve where no further building can take place.
The two-hour trek takes you across mussel-clad rocks, past private villas, small sandy coves and up lavender-scented hills and pine groves that will empty your head of everything. And if you don’t feel you’ve flexed your muscles enough, the trip can be made more rigorous by using a Nordic walking stick.
Don’t let the boot-camp army analogy put you off. This is a convivial way of seeing nature at its best. Framed by the expanse of azure-blue sea, we happen on geckos and spy wild boar droppings, though no actual boars.
Two hours later we’re told we’ve each burned about 1,000 calories. So there there’s less guilt about returning to the hotel for a three-course lunch and a postprandial trip to the spa, which has been built around a raw rock face. Here, you can steam in the hamam, do some lengths in the indoor swimming pool complete with jet lane, or sign up for a customised facial in treatment rooms, where the floor-to-ceiling glass doors can be opened to let in the sound of the sea.
The spa uses Crème de la Mer and Swiss-made Nescens anti-aging cosmeceuticals. A fairly full-on facial from the former gives immediate results while a slip of a girl possessing the strength of Obélix will make you as tender as the lamb on the previous night’s menu.
Should all this healthy relaxation get a little boring, there is a shuttle service to nearby St Tropez. But after a few days at La Réserve, the resort famed for its frenetic “look at me” culture will feel out of step with your by-now relaxed state of mind.
When you get back you could drink a sundowner on the roof terrace. Chances are you might retire to your room and order a bottle of Château Volterra, a local rosé made in a russet-fronted castle visible on the nearby promontory.
From your own private terrace, you can watch cruise lines en route to Cannes, trace the wake left by high-speed motor shuttles, and count the number of sail boats that cross the bay. As dusk gives way to darkness, a deep baritone bullfrog chorus begins its nightly performance.
Keep your eyes peeled for shooting stars – in this part of Provence, stargazing is of the celestial and not celebrity kind.
B&B in a deluxe room at La Réserve Ramatuelle starts from €780 per room per night. A tasting menu costs about €128 without wine. + 33 4 94 44 94 44 – info@lareserve-ramatuelle.com lareserve-ramatuelle.com
Aer Lingus flies daily to Nice, about a 90-minute drive. Fares start from €58. aerling.com
