"Given the global obsession with Provence, it’s hard to find a village that’s as pretty as it is unpopulated. It's easy, therefore, to fall hard for both the hillside town of Tourtour, which has spectacular views over the Var region, and the nearby 15-room Domaine de la Baume, an eighteenth-century manoir on a 99-acre estate. Upon arrival, it's not uncommon to find a carafe of chilled tea and a fresh-baked pound cake were waiting on the terrace in the shade of the chestnut trees, as if the original owner, the French painter Bernard Buffet, were expecting houseguests. That sense of genteel hospitality extends to the rooms—beautifully decorated in toile de Jouy fabrics and Provençal antiques—as well as the meals, which feel more like something you’d have in a friend’s country house than in a hotel. The kitchen sources from local farms and produces its own honey, herbs, and olive oil, so the regularly changing prix fixe menu—maybe spelt risotto with truffle emulsion, followed by roast figs with rosemary ice cream—puts Provence right on your plate too. –Alexander Lobrano"
