For once, we’re not staying at Marriott, but at a Relais & Châteaux property to round off our summer vacation.
Itinerary reminder :
Booking
I made the booking almost 45 days before our arrival. We had decided to visit the Loire castles, in combination with Majorca and Seville, as an alternative to our American road trip.
The property is often fully booked, and often expensive. We tried to find the best date in terms of price and to suit our schedule.
So it’ll be a Friday evening for €290 a night, including breakfast, for a standard room.
There were no fully flexible rates with no deposit. Our rates are flexible up to 48 hours before arrival, and a 30% deposit is required.
Arrival
We arrive at the hotel by rental car at the end of the morning. Our room is not yet ready, and we leave our luggage at reception.
The welcome is absolutely charming, and everyone greets us with the respect befitting the hotel’s clientele.
We take a tour of the estate, then decide to have lunch before exploring the area.
We return to the hotel in the late afternoon, and complete the arrival formalities. We are given our key (retro), and a concierge accompanies us to our room. Our luggage has already been carefully arranged in the room.
Room
Our room is located in the former stables, on the second floor. It is quite spacious.
Just inside the entrance are the (separate) toilets and the rather kitsch bathroom. The toiletries are from Clarins, and of excellent quality.
The bathrobes are very comfortable and (I appreciate the details) the belts are already put in the loops, which avoids the ridiculous moment when the belt falls into the shower water…
The bedroom is very… pink, thanks to the toile de Jouy on the walls. It has a TV, a minibar, water, a well-decorated desk and a bed that will be very comfortable.
To ensure complete darkness, blackout curtains complement the beautiful country curtains.
To finish, a video tour:
Hotel facilities
The hotel has a fitness room, a guinguette, a spa and a swimming pool.
The pool is located away from the house, and is protected by safety fences as required in France.
The fitness room is right next door, and we won’t be using it.
A few yards away is a small guinguette with a boulodrome. We’ll have a little game with my wife before lunch.
Unfortunately, the spa will be reserved for treatments, so the sauna and steam room will not be accessible to us.
Food options
The strong point of a Relais & Châteaux property is its catering. We’ll be taking full advantage of this, having lunch, dinner and breakfast.
Lunch at the Bistrot
Before setting off to explore the region, we choose to have an early lunch at the Bistrot, around 12pm.
When we arrive shortly after 12pm, the bistro is still empty. The welcome is very kind and we settle down at a table.
A few hot gougères are brought to us and we order a few drinks.
After ordering, warm, homemade bread is brought to us, and it’s excellent.
Dishes are brought to us quickly, and they were excellent: a pan of kidneys and veal rice with cream for me, a veal cutlet for my wife, served generously. The quality of the vegetable tian was excellent.
The dessert, a red fruit tartlet that we shared, was just divine, and augured the best for the evening meal.
Dinner at gourmet restaurant (2 Michelin stars)
We had a 7:30pm reservation at the property’s gourmet restaurant, which has 2 Michelin stars. I had confirmed this booking when we arrived at the hotel and we arrived after a well-deserved shower following our day in the heat.
We sit outside for an aperitif and order two glasses of champagne while we choose our menu.
Our glasses of champagne are brought to us with excellent amuse-bouche.
Our waiter returns to take our dinner order. We’ll choose the grand gourmet menu with wine pairing.
Once we’ve finished our aperitif, we go inside and sit down at the table. Service is good, but not exceptional.
The dishes, on the other hand, are succulent.
Our favorite: the caviar, truly sublimated.
We’ll have our infusion at the bar and finish the evening with a few chocolates.
Breakfast (at the bistro)
After a very restful night, we head to the bistro for breakfast. We’ll have it on the very buccolic terrace.
Service is entirely at the table. We’ll opt for the scrambled eggs, which will be cooked to order with crispy bacon. A delight.
The pastries will also be exceptional. Everything will be of the highest quality, including the service.
Departure
We’ll be leaving mid-morning, the bill will be correct and everything will go smoothly.
Bottom line
An excellent stay. The price wasn’t sweet, but the service was so good that we’ll be back. We regret the staff’s lack of English skills. It’s a pity.
