La Colombe D'Or by Jamie Dunford Wood

La Colombe d'Or is famous, and justly so. For long the haunt of impoverished artists who couldn't pay their bills, it became the home of a unique collection of art from many of the subsequently famous names who supped at its delightful terrace tables, from Picasso to Matisse. The hotel is unobtrusively located at the entrance to the pretty, if over-touristed, hill village of St. Paul de Vence in the Cote d'Azur, a small door in a wall and a discreet sign being the only evidence of life inside. However, every so of ten you'll spy Roger Moore or some other familiar face slipping out in shades and a straw hat, and camera wielding tourists are quickly discouraged from stepping more than a pace or two inside. Most don't know it is there.

The guiding principle of this hotel is simplicity, and the feeling of not being a hotel at all, but a private home. It has an old farmhouse appeal, with a garden terrace restaurant overhung with fig trees, a ceramic wall painting by Leger hiding behind the ivy. Even the chairs, cups and plates have been designed by past guests. The reception desk is a small grilled affair behind which preside the gardiens, more friends to the guests than hotel receptionists. The stone passages are low and narrow, hung at every turn by familiar names, and at the back is a well hidden and delightful pool, presided over by a huge Calder mobile. The rooms are simply decorated, some with wall frescoes, with an assortment of tasteful furnishings. In the vaulted bar, people sit on wooden stools, while below a terraced garden stretches down into the valley. Guests are encouraged to stay 'demi-pension'. Many of the rooms have small sitting rooms.