Saint-Tropez has evolved spectacularly, more correctly, garishly, since the ‘50s, when the seductive Brigitte Bardot and wellheeled Gary Cooper brought celestial Hollywood glamour to the tiny French fishing port. But like Monte Carlo, the Saint-Tropez of 2010 offers more in the way of teeming hordes of tourists, crude, bling-like excess and oligarch super-toys, such as Roman Abramovich’s 500 foot-plus, Helicopter-wielding super yacht, the Eclipse, than old-school Côte d’Azur cool. However, one renowned Parisian hotelier, the Lebanese-born Shahé Kalaidjian, and designer, Christophe Pillet, are doing their utmost to stem the tide and bring back 1950s hotel chic, with the recent (July 2010) launch of their Provencal-style resort, the Hotel Sezz Saint-Tropez. Francophiles may be already acquainted with Kalaidjian and Pillet’s Parisian hotel, the Hotel Sezz Paris, located in the 16th arrondissement and known for its exceptionally large rooms (for Paris, mind you). Set amongst vineyards and olive trees, just a few hundred metres from the beach, Hotel Sezz Saint-Tropez is a quiet, stylish and unpretentious getaway, consisting of over 30 guestrooms scattered around the pool (5 villas have their own private pool) and a — hic! – Dom Pérignon champagne bar. Furniture conceived by Pillet, the design director at Lacoste and an alumni of Philippe Starck, is scattered throughout the hotel; the restaurant, Collette, named after the early 20th-century French writer, Sidonie Gabrielle Colette, who used to live nearby, is manned by Michelin Star-rated super-chef, Pierre Gagnaire. “Imagine both of us as writers who are telling two very different stories,” says Kalaidjian, of himself and Pillet. “Hotel Sezz Paris is an urban story and the next volume is a vacation story. The only point in common is that it is the same writers with the same style and vision.” A member of Design Hotels ™, bookings for Hotel Sezz Saint-Tropez can be made through the website: www.designhotels.com.