La Bastide St. Antoine****

This romantic, thoroughly Provençal 4-star luxury hotel is really just an excuse to avoid driving after eating some of the best food in France at the restaurant of master chef M. Jacques Chibois with the same name as the hotel. While M. Chibois has worked real culinary magic for the Restaurant La Bastide Saint Antoine his wife, Odette, has used some magic of her own in styling the hotel and 8 lovely rooms and 3 suites.

They have totally restored and enlarged this old eighteenth century "mas" which was in fact two separate buildings that they have joined together. They opened "La Bastide Saint Antoine" in 1996. During the last century, the former owner staged many fashionable evenings entertaining celebrities such as the Kennedy family and the Rolling Stones. Today, partly due to its proximity to Cannes, other famous people in the entertainment business frequent the establishment. With an amusing nod to their influence in the area, the Chiboises have chosen china for the dining room whose border is decorated with the names of all the winners of the Cannes Film Festival. On the back is a large photo of Marilyn Monroe.

A corner of the terrace full of Provençal ambiance. The Reading room and upstairs bar with fireplace and small library of books. The cigar smoking room and after dinner bandy room.

Set on acres of ancient olive groves whose trees are more than 400 years old, the property is on the outer edge of the town of Grasse, famous in the past for its production of perfume. It has a commanding view out over the Estérel and the Mediterranean waters of the bay of Théoule from the rooms and the terraces. The main buildings occupy a flat area, but as the hillside descends it is terraced and filled with more olive trees, flag stoned eating spaces and even a place to play "boules". Wild roses have adopted some of the olive trees and emeshed their vines into the branches and fill the tall trees with pink blossoms.

Both the public rooms and the bedrooms and suites, just like the cuisine, evoke the themes of Provence. The soft colors, the terra cotta floor tiles from Salernes, the fabrics, the antiques and the traditional styled more recent furnishings all summon up the tastes of the area. Even if the weather is not favorable for sitting on the terrace, the charming rooms inside are cozy and welcoming. From the minute you walk in and see opposite the reception the library with fireplace, bar and bookshelves filled with reading material in many languages, you really feel you can let down. The "smoking room" with its cellars for cigars and celebrated alcohols also has a warm fireplace and intimate alcoves.

The four dining rooms give a more intimate feel to a restaurant that can seat up to 180 people for lunch or dinner. The bedrooms and the three suites (one full the other two junior) are also individualistic all displaying aspects of the regional charm. They are named after local villages in the area such as Opio, Peymeinade or Saint Vallier. The notice on the door to let the maid know to clean has a sachet of lavender attached to it and hangs from a hook rather than looping onto the door handle. Many of the rooms have fireplaces. The hotel and restaurant are open most of the year and it can get chilly in winter even by the coast.

The smoking section of the formal dining room. View of the lawn and on to the sea from the terrace. Three stone statues of young women, one pregnant, add to the scene. Part of the park of 400 year old olive trees that surround the hotel on all sides, some on ancient terraces that descend the hillside below the buildings.

From the embroidered bedspreads and the eighteenth century terra cotta floors, the spacious bathrooms with baths and shower stalls with more shower heads than Medusa not to mention the latest TV and stereo equipment with CNN, Sky News and other stations from all over Europe, the rooms offer very comfortable accommodations to sink into after one or more meals from the kitchens of M. Chibois.

There is a lot to do in the area from sports to nature trails; from shopping visiting wineries. The hotel has made it their business to have a full dossier of information for whatever you may want to do.

Rooms:
	One of the charming rooms all done is soft and warm colors. The sitting room of the suite shown above right.	The bedroom of the suite shown bottom left. It has a view of the sea in the distance. One of the classic bathrooms.