Guest User
July 11, 2025
We love small, boutique hotels and happened upon Le Mas Candille from a recommendation by American Express, belive it or not. The compound of 4 dozen rooms consists of the main house, where reception and restaurant are located, the Bastide, which sits up on the property between the 2 pools and the 'Suites' which are on the opposite side of the main house. We stayed in the Bastide with a valley view patio room. A completely uninterrupted view of Grasse, the global perfume capital, on the opposite hillside. Breathtaking. The property, which started as a farmhouse in the 18th century, became a hotel and has been so for decades. Rumor has it that Napoleon and his troops rested under one of the current, massive olive trees on the property during his return from exile on the Isle of Elba. The new owners spent 3-4 years renovating and adding onto the property, and it reopened just last summer. We very much enjoyed our stay and the staff were very welcoming and helpful, especially around the pool! - making sure our beverages were fresh and umbrellas were perfectly positioned. The only reason we gave the property 4 stars is that there are some opportunities for improvement. There were significant signs of wear on some of the stairs (paint chipped/peeling), which made the property feel older than 1 year since the reno. The hot tub was not operational, and as with most European properties, the AC struggled to keep up with the sweltering humidity during the heat wave we endured during our 2-week stay in France. The bedding was lovely, but the bed itself was *very* firm. I don't mind firm, but the beds could benefit from a memory foam topper or similar to soften the sleeping experience. Also, though we were usually up by 9a, the unit below us was undergoing some construction. The saws, drills, and hammers starting at 9a were a bit unnerving as we sat on our patio sipping coffee. This is temporary, so I would not hold the noise against the property - it's not a chronic situation. Lastly, since the property only has 100 or so guests at capacity, it's not surprising that there is only one of the two restaurants open at a given time. The pool restaurant has casual fare during the day and the main restaurant, Tigrr, which is lovely, is open exclusively for dinner. Breakfast is served in the Tigrr dining area as well. It would have been nice to have a casual dining option without having to shuttle into Mougins. Mougins is beautiful and there are plenty of art, clothing and curio shops along with a number of very good restaurants. The decor and finishes were very nice, but don't expect white marble baths like the Ritz. The finishes are distinctly french country - a bit of a mix of Provençal and Mediterranean - hand made tiles, bold colors and rich, textured fabrics. All in all, we had a very lovely experience - with a few tweaks, I think the property could easily be listed in the Small Luxury Hotels of the World or Relais & Chateau communit