Le Palais Grimaldi

Le Palais Grimaldi announces itself with a clock tower. Behind iron gates, red-ochre wings spread out under umbrella pines, and from the grounds you can see the old hilltop village of Grimaud and its castle. Vines grow right up to the edge of the pool.

The interiors are lavish and confident. The main salon rises two storeys, with arched windows dressed in bronze silk. A formal dining room seats ten beneath a glass chandelier, and a second dining room, with blue lattice and potted citrus, feels like a winter garden. Then the surprises keep coming: a lit wine cellar, a library with leather chairs, a games room with a roulette table and a bar lit like a small nightclub. As a luxury villa rental in Grimaud, it plays in a league of its own.

Le Palais Grimaldi sleeps sixteen guests in six bedrooms, each with a king bed, and has eight bathrooms. The bedrooms are layered with toile, silk and marble, and the main suite has a gold canopy and a dressing room. Outside, there's a pool with an arched pool house and a bar. Inside, there's a second pool under white brick vaults, plus a spa with a treatment room.

Grimaud lies on the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, on the Riviera coast of southern France. Le Palais Grimaldi suits a milestone birthday, a family reunion or a group that wants a private resort to themselves.