Baudon de Mauny

Mr & Mrs Smith have just got back from a review trip to this boutique hotel in Languedoc-Rousillon, and just as soon as they’ve unpacked their bags, a full account of their stay in southern France will be with you. In the meantime, just to whet your wanderlust, here’s a swift carte postale from super-chic B&B Baudon de Mauny…

The phrase ‘hand-me-down’ is never usually an appealing description, but in the case of this centuries-old Montpellier townhouse turned boutique hotel, it can only be a good thing. Alain and Nathalie, Baudon de Mauny’s owners, are the seventh generation to inherit the beautiful building (it was built in 1777 by one of Louis XVI’s retinue), and they’ve handled it with the care and attention you’d expect to be exercised over a treasured heirloom. The key 18th-century features are still present – huge ceilings, intricate cornicing and incredibly detailed plasterwork, ancient and mighty doors – but the scent of history mingles with a smart contemporary air. Four of the hotel’s five bedrooms have fun and funky Cole & Sons wallpaper (like the Smith office, we should smugly point out), reflecting each room’s theme (poppies, orchids, flamingos, butterflies…). Up-to-the-minute modernity is evident in the furniture and fittings – check out the tall cone-lights flanking the lounge doorway, and the walk-in Italian rain showers cunningly concealed behind the beds. Such here-and-now touches somehow don’t diffuse the then-and-there feel, however – it’s like being able to step back in time – and bring a copy of Wallpaper* with you…