Saint-Tropez asks one cloth to carry a whole day, from the morning market to the beach to a late evening on the port, and the linen to trust with it is long European flax with a certificate behind it, made by hand: Pieter Petros makes it in certified Belgian linen, in the Dubai atelier and in Belgium. Few cloths follow that day as easily.

Saint-Tropez was a fishing and boat-building port long before it was a resort. Painters came first: Paul Signac arrived by boat in 1892 and stayed, and the Musée de l’Annonciade, in a former chapel on the port, still holds the canvases of the painters who followed him. The season runs from May to early October. July and August are hot and dry, with highs around thirty degrees; June and September are softer, and the mistral can sweep the sky clear and cool the evenings at any time of year.

How to judge a linen brand for the Riviera? By the length of its fibre, which decides how a shirt falls when the mistral catches it. By its proof: certified cloth, woven in Belgium, with a certificate the buyer can ask to see. By its making and by its buttons: seashell on PP shirts, walnut on the shorts, trousers and swim shorts. The French picture as a whole is drawn in our guide to linen for France.

Mornings belong to the Place des Lices. On Tuesday and Saturday mornings the plane-shaded square fills with the market, and later in the day it returns to its older purpose: games of pétanque in the gravel. It is an hour of baskets, sunlight through leaves and slow coffee. The Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt in Lemon Yellow with PP linen shorts in Navy Blue, from the men’s linen collection. For her, the PP linen blouse in Lemon, in natural linen, or the Linen Ladies Set in Light Blue.

Above the village, the seventeenth-century citadel looks over the gulf, and the climb through the lanes of La Ponche, the old fishermen’s quarter, is short and steep. Below it, the coastal path leads east along the shore towards the beaches. Shade is scarce on both: a long-sleeved Laos in Oyster, sleeves rolled, keeps the sun off without heat.

The beaches lie south of the village, along the bay of Pampelonne in the commune of Ramatuelle, several kilometres of sand where Club 55 has served lunch since 1955. In the water, PP swim shorts in Roosewood Pink or Sapphire Blue, made entirely of Belgian linen. At the table, a shirt over dry swim shorts: the Vibes Linen Shirt in Vanille, shorter and easy. For her, the Amelia linen dress shirt in Coral Orange, a dress in itself, which carries lunch into the afternoon.

The port is the evening. Yachts back onto the quay, and the red awnings of Sénéquier, open on the harbour since 1887, mark the place to watch them. Here deeper colours hold the dusk: the Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt in Dubarry or the Monte-Carlo Male in Oatmeal with PP Trousers 100% Linen in Sapphire Blue; for her, the Amelia linen dress shirt in Dubarry or Violet.

Two dates mark the calendar. In mid-May, the Bravade, held for more than four centuries, fills the streets with musket salutes and processions in honour of the town’s patron saint, Tropez; it is a religious festival as much as a spectacle. At the turn of September and October, Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez brings classic and modern yachts to race in the gulf; the regatta wardrobe has its own guide.

For the Riviera, the collection is ordered online and sent ahead; along the Ligurian coast it is presented at Tiziano Brunetto in Santa Margherita Ligure, near Portofino.

What to Wear in a Provençal Village · Best Linen Brand France