VERA Favourite · Partner
La Passagère
Fish, Art Deco and the Fitzgeralds' view at Hôtel Belles Rives
VERA Favourite · Partner
La Passagère
Fish, Art Deco and the Fitzgeralds' view at Hôtel Belles Rives
The Michelin-starred restaurant of Hôtel Belles Rives, where Chef Aurélien Véquaud cooks fish, shellfish and seafood in an Art Deco room above the bay, looking out to the Lérins Islands.
Why VERA picked it
Great cooking in one of the Riviera's most evocative rooms – the villa where Scott Fitzgerald began Tender Is the Night – with a terrace that makes every dinner an occasion.
A villa with a story
In 1925 F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald settled into Villa Saint-Louis on the shore at Juan-les-Pins, where he began Tender Is the Night. In 1929 Boma Estène and his wife Simone bought the villa and turned it into Hôtel Belles Rives, built right at the water's edge. It is still run by their family. Marianne Estène-Chauvin, their granddaughter, opened the hotel year-round and gave its restaurant the name La Passagère.
The room
Restored chrome chandeliers, period murals, a mosaic floor and fine ceramics keep the Art Deco spirit alive; the dining room was reworked by Olivier Antoine. Outside, the terrace looks across the water to the Lérins Islands.
The cooking
La Passagère won its first Michelin star in 2016. Aurélien Véquaud, who grew up on the Atlantic coast, has a gift for seafood and likes to use lesser-known local fish – mullet, leerfish, blackfish – alongside seaweed and samphire. Pastry chef Johann Kleiber closes the meal with a sequence of seven to nine small sweet bites, and coffee arrives with a bar of dark chocolate broken into the cup at the table.
Good to know
| Where | Hôtel Belles Rives, 33 Boulevard Édouard Baudoin, 06160 Juan-les-PinsJuan-les-Pins, Belles RivesApple MapsGoogle Maps |
|---|---|
| Opening hours | Not publishedCall before you go – hours change with the season. |
| Phone | +33 (0)4 93 61 02 79 |
| info@bellesrives.com | |
| Website | bellesrives.com |
| @bellesrives | |
| Worth knowing | The indoor room and the terrace are accessible to guests with reduced mobility. Book through the hotel. |
Sources: bellesrives.com/en/la-passagere.html – Michelin-starred, chef Aurélien Véquaud, pastry chef Johann Kleiber, Olivier Antoine room, Art Deco details, Lérins view, local fish, dessert sequence, accessibility, contact · bellesrives.com/en/history-and-identity.html – Fitzgeralds at Villa Saint-Louis 1925, Estène purchase 1929, Marianne Estène-Chauvin named La Passagère, first Michelin star 2016 · guide.michelin.com – La Passagère listed; hours not published on the hotel site, so left out
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