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La Bastide Saint-Antoine, Heritage Boutique Hotel of the Year 2026

European Hotel Awards 2026 / September 28, 2026

Jacques Chibois © La Bastide Saint-Antoine / European Hotel Awards 2026

Some boutique hotels are created from a design concept. Others grow from a house, a landscape and the personality of the people who have shaped them over time. In Grasse, La Bastide Saint-Antoine belongs firmly to the second category. Its dialogue between heritage, gastronomy, gardens and Provençal hospitality earned it the title Heritage Boutique Hotel of the Year 2026 at the European Hotel Awards.

Owned by chef Jacques Chibois, the five-star Relais & Châteaux property has developed an identity that is difficult to separate into conventional hotel departments. The building, the olive grove, the table, the views and the small scale of the accommodation all form part of the same experience.

A seventeenth-century house with a contemporary purpose

La Bastide Saint-Antoine occupies a seventeenth-century Provençal residence. In 1996, Jacques Chibois and his wife Odette acquired the property after a long search for a place in which they could develop a house reflecting their own idea of hospitality.

The restoration sought to preserve the character of the building rather than turn it into a generic luxury product. This decision remains central to the property today. Heritage is not presented as a decorative theme; it determines scale, proportions, atmosphere and the way guests move through the house.

La Bastide Saint-Antoine © La Bastide Saint-Antoine

The olive grove as part of the architecture

The estate is set within an olive grove of around five hectares, with cypress trees, gardens and open perspectives towards the surrounding landscape, the Bay of Cannes and the Mediterranean. Nature is not simply a background to the hotel; it organises the guest’s perception of the place.

Paths, terraces, old olive trees, scent and changing light slow the rhythm of the stay. The landscape also anchors the hotel in the Pays de Grasse, where gardens, perfume, agriculture and Mediterranean culture have long interacted.

Sixteen rooms and suites: the value of small scale

La Bastide Saint-Antoine offers sixteen rooms and suites, with interiors moving between Provençal references and a more contemporary expression. The limited number of keys is important because it preserves the feeling of a house rather than an institution.

In a boutique hotel of this scale, the room cannot be treated as an isolated product. It needs to continue the experience already established in the gardens, salons and terraces. Personal contact also becomes more natural when the property remains intentionally intimate.

La Bastide Saint-Antoine © La Bastide Saint-Antoine

Jacques Chibois and gastronomy as a language of place

The identity of Jacques Chibois is inseparable from the hotel. His cuisine is closely associated with the South of France, herbs, citrus, olive oil and regional produce. That same logic extends beyond the plate: the restaurant, terraces, gardens and hotel share one Mediterranean vocabulary.

Gastronomy therefore becomes a way of interpreting the property rather than a separate attraction. Staying, dining and looking out across the landscape are different parts of the same story. Chibois had already been recognised by the European Hotel Awards in 2019 as Restaurateur-Hotelier of the Year; the 2026 distinction is awarded to La Bastide Saint-Antoine itself and to the enduring hospitality identity created around the house.

La Bastide Saint-Antoine © La Bastide Saint-Antoine

Why La Bastide Saint-Antoine received Heritage Boutique Hotel of the Year 2026

The European Hotel Awards Board selected La Bastide Saint-Antoine because its heritage is not treated as a static backdrop. The Award recognises a preserved historic residence, restoration respectful of its original character, an olive grove that structures the landscape, the deliberately intimate scale of sixteen rooms and suites, gastronomy that is inseparable from the property, and the continuity of the vision developed by Jacques and Odette Chibois since 1996.

The two words in the Award title are particularly relevant. Heritage describes a property that keeps history active rather than placing it behind glass. Boutique describes more than size: it reflects personality, direct human presence and an experience that would be difficult to reproduce elsewhere.

The distinction also recognises the hotel’s relationship with Grasse. The city is internationally associated with perfume, yet the wider territory also expresses a culture of gardens, cuisine, light and Mediterranean living. La Bastide Saint-Antoine brings those elements together in a hospitality experience that remains strongly individual.