The questions arrive in the same week every year. Where do I sit. Where is the lunch. Which one is still the right one. Pampelonne is three miles of white sand on the eastern face of the Saint-Tropez peninsula. There are now between twenty-five and thirty operators along its length, and the differences between them — once a question of style — are now a question of substance. Here, in the order I would book them across a five-day stay, the ones that earn the reservation.
Day one — Shellona
Begin at the north end. The Tahiti stretch — set into the dunes between Pampelonne proper and the Pinède des Caves Renaud — is, in 2026, the most consistently good lunch on the entire beach. Shellona, the Greek restaurant the Mati brothers opened in 2014, has settled into the kind of rhythm most operators on Pampelonne have stopped attempting: the grilled fish is the grilled fish, the rosé list is serious (ask for the Domaine Tempier blanc if it is on), and the table service is one of the very few on the beach that does not assume you are in a hurry.
Book table fourteen, on the second row back from the sand. Lunch at one-thirty. Stay through the second carafe. Walk the beach south at four. The afternoon will arrange itself.
Day two — Les Palmiers
For the day you want to be left alone, Les Palmiers — the small operator in the dune at the back of the Tahiti zone — is the answer. The clientele is older, French, returning. There is no DJ. The lunch is unfussy: fish, salade niçoise, the rosé of the gulf. The mattresses are the same mattresses they have been for thirty years, which is, of course, why they are the right ones. Bring a book. Stay until five. It is the closest thing on Pampelonne to a private beach.
Day three — Loulou Ramatuelle, for lunch only
The lunch every American client has heard of, and the one they should still book. Loulou's terrace, now in its sixth full season under the same kitchen team, is the most stylish lunch in the South of France. The room is the room: the langoustines, the whole fish, the wines from the Var inland. Book a month ahead in August. Sit at the back-left banquette if you can.
Loulou is not a beach. It is a lunch with a sea view. Treat it accordingly. Eat. Walk the beach afterwards. Do not try to make a day of it.
Day four — Verde Beach
The Carluccio brothers, who run several of the most serious Italian rooms on the Riviera, opened Verde at the southern end of Pampelonne in 2019 and made the call to keep it small. The kitchen has, since the arrival of Julien Lee (ex-Ducasse), become the most accomplished Italian on the beach. The truffle pasta is the truffle pasta. The wine list, unusually for a Pampelonne operator, has the depth of a serious restaurant in town.
The crowd is younger than at Loulou, more international, less performative than at Bagatelle. Book the front-row table. Order light at lunch — the evenings here, in the high season, are now where the action has moved.
Day five — La Réserve à la Plage
For the long lunch into apéritif, La Réserve à la Plage — the beach club of the La Réserve Ramatuelle hotel just inland — is the address for the visitor who wants the polish of a hotel beach without the slight stiffness. The kitchen is by Jean Imbert, the rosé is the rosé of the property's own cellar, and the cabanas, by the architect Philippe Starck, are the most beautiful on the beach.
Arrive at noon. Order the chilled bouillabaisse. Stay through six. If you are staying at La Réserve itself, this is where the week ends.
The festive choice — Bagatelle
For the one day in the week when the table needs to be loud, Bagatelle is, still, the answer. The lunch tips into apéritif tips into dinner; the rosé arrives in magnums; the playlist is what the playlist is. It is the right call once. It is the wrong call three times. Book the regular table, not the long table. Leave before sunset.
The legend — Club 55
I will not write five paragraphs about Club 55. You will go. You should go. Book lunch on a Tuesday in late May, when the room is still in its early season form, and order the panier provençal that has been on the table since the 1950s. The wine is what it is. The view, on the right day, is the entire South of France. The bill is the bill.
The 55 is no longer the best lunch on the beach. It is, however, still the most important.
What to politely skip
I will not name them. The short version: any beach operator on Pampelonne that has added a second DJ, a third bar, or a "wellness" cabana on the sand since 2024 should be assumed to have lost the thread. There are at least four. Your concierge will know which ones. So will I.
The order, in one paragraph
Five days, five lunches. Shellona on the first. Les Palmiers for the quiet day. Loulou on the day you eat early and walk. Verde for the Italian. La Réserve for the long week-ender. Bagatelle, if at all, on the Saturday. Club 55, once, on whichever day the weather forecasts the clearest light.
The rest of the beach is decoration.
— Camille Vedy
