Bastide de Saint Antoine

This grand country house in the hills of Provence has an illustrious past and has been revived by the Michelin star chef Jacques Chibois so it is now also a gourmet mecca.

• Knowing that the Rolling Stones made beautiful music here
• The truffle menu that is served in January by Jacques Chibois
• Dining in the olive grove on splendid food and wine and retiring upstairs instead of navigating the windy back roads

Built in the 18th century, Bastide St. Antoine was the hunting lodge of an English aristocrat who entertained many celebrities here including the Kennedy family. A later owner welcomed the Rolling Stones who spent an entire year on the property. In the late 1990s, renowned French chef Jacques Chibois bought the fifteen-acre estate, which is just outside France’s perfume capital, Grasse, and transformed it into a Relais & Chateaux inn with a Michelin-starred restaurant. The house contains a lovely library and gift shop (with gourmet focus, of course) and nine pretty Provençal-style rooms and seven suites. Rooms are either in a traditional Provencal style with wooden carved furniture, terra cotta floors and quilts or Contemporary, which are a sleeker modern take on the area’s preference for natural materials and a light palette. On the grounds are a pretty pool, rose gardens and a postcard perfect fruit orchard. The setting of the restaurant cannot be beat: set back behind a peaceful century-old olive grove. Michelin one-star chef Jacques Chibois, who is known for his innovative use of Mediterranean olive oil, serves an ever-changing seasonal menu, which might include innovative dishes like truffle ravioli stuffed with scallops and shrimp, roast quail with chestnut truffle purée and a lemon soufflé with a truffle crème brulée.

Note: Truffle lovers should schedule their visit in January when Chibois runs a truffle market.

Romantics and gourmands.