Work & Pleasure in St Tropez...
Published on Sunday 3rd June 2007
I’ve just returned from a work trip to St Tropez. Working... yes really... though not all that hard. The project is now in its third year and we are finally coming to an end!
My client has become one of my greatest friends - which is a good thing, considering how much time she has had to spend with me, and it has really become both work and pleasure!
Her villa is beautiful. It’s close to the vineyards and set back overlooking the bay of St Tropez. There’s something very special about St Tropez (I have been going for a while now and know it well) and in my opinion it’s at its best late May / early June, the start of the season, although while I was there it coincided with Cannes, The Grand Prix and the Polo, so the place was jam packed - though nothing like August.
We shunned most of the razzmatazz, preferring to stay by the pool at the villa, though we did make it out one morning for coffee and champagne at Senequier in the habour - the place to sit and watch the world go by, shadowed by the Super Yachts.
In the evening we chose to go my friend Virginie’s restaurant, L’ Auberge La Cousteline, an ancient Provencal Manor House set in the Vineyards on the way to Grimaud Village. On the approach in darkness all you can see are the beautifully laid tables with the glow of soft lanterns in the garden.
And the food is fantastic (an ever changing menu so you never get bored). Simple, provencal dishes all cooked to a very high standard by Virgine’s mother. (Always advisable to book, 04 94 43 29 47, Quatier les Couzes, Grimaud.)
But back to the world of interiors. Whilst all of the soft furnishings I shipped in from the UK, and the furniture from my clients apartment in New York, the decorative pieces were purchased locally in La Maison des Lices , just off the famous Place des Lice.
 The shop is full of the most desirable items: furniture, crockery, cutlery, mirrors, lights... And it’s all so very chic, so very French. Unattainable here. Or so I thought, until I discovered Brissi  .
When I stepped into the store on London’s King’s Road (they’re also in Notting Hill and of course online) it was just like being in La Maison. So much so I had to enquire if they were the same – they’re not.
If you like the French influence, which personally I do, then it is a truly inspiring place to shop. And well worth checking out.
St Tropez...any regrets? Not getting to Club 55 and no day in the Spa at Villa Marie...well, there’s always next time...
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