Zannier Île de Bendor is the South of France’s most talked-about hotel opening this year, a triple threat on a craggy islet just a 10-minute boat ride from the port of Bandol. After a five-year-long $100 million renovation project by Hardel Le Bihan Architectes, this storied Provençal retreat reopened in May with 93 rooms, five restaurants and bars, two small beaches and a kids’ club, for children ages 4 to 12.

The story of the island of Bendor began in 1950, when aperitif magnate Paul Ricard bought the rocky, uninhabited 17-acre island. After building a holiday villa for his family, Ricard added a hotel and a restaurant to cater to his friends. A trained painter, Ricard also had ambitions for Bendor to become a center of the arts.

The Delos, the island’s original hotel, drew a jet-setty crowd during the 1950s and ’60s, but by the ’80s, the resort’s heyday had passed. Eventually, Marc de Jouffroy, Ricard’s great-grandson, decided to overhaul the property and bring it into the 21st century. To do so, he selected Zannier, a small French company with luxury hotels in Namibia, Cambodia, Vietnam and the French Alps, because of its commitments to environmental protection and preserving cultural traditions.