Will the Île de Bendor be the next St. Tropez? That’s the plan, anyway—at least for its owners, the descendants of pastis king Paul Ricard. This tiny island, just a five-minute speedboat ride from the French Riviera’s resort town of Bandol, is about to transform from family retreat to luxury hotel.
The late Ricard founded his eponymous distillery in Marseille in 1932 and grew it into one of the world’s largest and most profitable liquor conglomerates. In 1950, when Ricard bought the Île de Bendor, it was just a rocky, uninhabited shoal. He originally eyed it as an idyllic setting for a family summer house.
