USP If you want to turn heads on the catwalk that is the St Tropez quayside, a touch of buffing, polishing and preening is a good call. The fashionable Cote d’Azur resort is all about shapely figures and golden tans, and there are plenty of treatments at Fermes de Marie that can help you achieve these.

The spa is at Villa Marie, an elegant 42-beroom hotel that is about ten minutes out of town. It’s a peaceful spot on the hills overlooking vineyards and the popular Pampelone beach, and is perfect for a relaxed afternoon’s pampering.

After your treatment you can chill out by the outdoor pool, take over a day bed in the shade of a pine forest or dine at the lounge bar for lunch or smarter al fresco terrace for dinner.

The Fermes de Marie has four treatment rooms and uses bespoke products made with mountain flowers – inspiration from the hotel’s sister property in the French Alps.

QUALITY OF EXPERIENCE My treatment room had no windows, but was large enough not to be claustrophobic (that feeling came later), with attractive period features such as coving and elegant renaissance-meets-cool-contemporary décor. My therapist spoke good English and talked me briefly through my treatment, a body scrub and wrap, which is one of the more popular treatments because it helps to prepare the skin for a long-lasting tan.

The sugar and honey scrub smelt good enough to eat and was the most thorough body scrub I’ve had at a spa. The pressure was perfect – invigorating but not grating, and by the end my skin felt smooth, with any dry patches sloughed away.

After a shower to wash off the scrub I was towel dried by my therapist, which felt a bit school matronly, and then came the strange bit.

The spa recommends a wrap of some sort to moisturise the skin after a scrub. One of the options is the “Soft Pack System”, which suspends the spa-goer in a warm water-filled inflatable while slathered in a mud pack – it’s as bizarre as it sounds. Imagine lying on a table with a deflated rubber boat wrapped around you, your body covered in a mudwrap and cellophane, then being raised slowly off the table as the boat is filled with water and eventually floating within it.

First came motion sickness, until I relaxed and lay still, then came an itch, precipitated by the thought, “what happens if I get an itch with my arms strapped to my sides?” Then came mild claustrophobia, until I pulled myself together and told myself it was supposed to be relaxing, and for the last few minutes of the 20-minute “float” I fell asleep – it’s just a shame sleep hadn’t come earlier.

It was a relief to be out of it – after which I was told to relax in the shade and try and let the moisturizing wrap sink in for maximum benefit.

AMBIENCE The background music was more pleasing than your average spa drones, and a little ethnic, and the temperature was spot-on – it’s always a nasty shock to emerge from a shower into an over air conditioned room, and equally bad to feel faint from over-zealous heating. There was no relaxation room, but a cool room filled with loungers could never beat the shaded daybeds or lounge bar sofas.

IN CROWD The hotel is popular with wealthy couples from around the world, and the odd family.

FOOD There are two restaurants – the lounge bar, which offers wonderful light meals for lunch, including an excellent spicy Bloody Mary, served as a soup, and some fresh summer salads with seasonal ingredients. The smarter evening restaurant has an elegant interior with renaissance-style furniture, white tablecloths, crystal glasses and candles, and a large terrace for open-air dining. You can be healthy and opt for dishes such as cold cucumber soup or grilled fish, or be more indulgent with dishes such as the raspberry millefeuille.

WALLET WATCH A scrub with the sugar and honey exfoliator and a body pack costs €105 for 50 minutes, and the Soft Pack System costs €60 for a soothing and regenerating cream bath lasting 25 minutes. Facials cost from €50 for 25 minutes and massages cost from €60 for 25 minutes, plus the spa offers slimming treatments, beauty treatments and various packages. Rooms at Villa Marie cost from €400 a night.

NEED TO KNOW Fermes de Marie, Villa Marie, Chemin Val de Rian 83350 Ramatuelle; (+33 494 97 4022; www.fermesdemarie-beauty.com or www.villamarie.fr)

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