Journalist Simon Liberati has spent decades writing about glamour, ruin, and devotion. His Saint-Tropez is less about the legend than the rituals beneath it: a church effigy, a beach that hasn't changed since the '20s, a coffee taken inside rather than on the terrace. In this ongoing Culture Lounge series, we turn to the voices behind our books to reveal the personal landscapes that continue to inspire them. Here, he shares the places and small pleasures that keep him coming back.
My first memory of Saint-Tropez is: A girl in a yellow turban, driving a yellow Ferrari Dino near La Belle Isnarde. July 1971.
When I want a dose of culture in Saint-Tropez, I visit: The past and the ghosts of the '20s are everywhere here. If you want a dose of culture, you need a time machine, and books are the cheapest ones available. Colette wrote a wonderful book set in Saint-Tropez, La Naissance du Jour, and I love reading it on Canoubiers beach, near La Treille Muscate, her historic house.
The one place every visitor must go to is: L'Église Paroissiale Notre-Dame de l'Assomption. A beautiful little church, home to a striking, almost cruel, effigy of Saint-Tropez himself.
One of my favorite museums in Saint-Tropez is: The one and only L'Annonciade. Vuillard, Signac, Marquet, Dufy, all in the same room.
The meal I cannot leave Saint-Tropez without is: A tarte tropézienne. Completely stupid, but I love it completely.
One of my favorite beaches is: Les Salins, a family place, very "hors du temps," that feels like Saint-Tropez did in the 19th century.
My favorite hotel in Saint-Tropez is: Hôtel Byblos. Terrible from the very start, and yet it endures. And so does our love for it.
One of my favorite restaurants in Saint-Tropez is: Chez Camille at La Bonne Terrasse in Ramatuelle, near Cap Camarat. The bouillabaisse is to die for.
If you're visiting Saint-Tropez for the first time, be sure to stop by: Sénéquier at 9:30 in the morning, for a coffee. Inside, not on the terrace. At that hour, you still meet the real ones, the ones who have been coming since the '60s.
I like to shop at: Superette de la Place des Lices.
I feel at home in Saint-Tropez when: It's June, every year.