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This delightful gîte , nestled in a village among rocky hillsides is a great place to unwind. For swimming, the lakes of Castillon and Chaudanne are five minutes away.

This huge hotel offers its own health spa and heated pool as well as a range of treatments offered at the nearby Thalassotherapy and Health Centre. It also has a casino, four restaurants and bar.

This historic hotel is the best address in Arles. Rooms are comfortable, and the lounge and foyer have a Provençal atmosphere.

This converted country house just outside St-Paul-de-Vence (though it’s too far to walk, save for the most nippy) is calm, friendly and peaceful, with a pool under palm trees and an immaculately kept garden. Rooms and suites are furnished and decorated in Provençal style, and there are pretty views.

The Romans were among the first to revere the healing properties of the thermal springs which flow from Mont Ste-Victoire, where you can take the waters in a modernized 18th-century palace, with an array of power showers, hydro-massage and mud wraps to eliminate stress and toxins.

Monte Carlo’s most glamorous hotel has direct access to the most modern health spa in Europe. The hotel also has four restaurants, its own hairdresser and luxury boutiques.

Rivaling the Hermitage for belle époque splendour, the Hôtel de Paris has a famous café-terrace on the ground floor (see Café de Paris, Monte Carlo) and is within staggering distance of the casino (see Casino de Monte Carlo). Queen Victoria stayed here, as have a host of other crowned heads and celebrities.

As ostentatious as the Negresco in its way, the Eden Roc is another landmark of the Riviera and has been for more than a century. It offers exclusivity and film-star chic in tropical gardens and is, in a word, idyllic.

Just outside Avignon, the 4-star hotel is a complex of 30 junior suites, each with whirlpool bath. There are also 18- and 9-hole golf courses.

Right in the centre of the thermal resort of Digne, this luxurious hotel offers a range of treatments in the adjoining hot springs, which are used to treat arthritis, rheumatism and a range of respiratory conditions.