Le Couvent des Minimes

Mr & Mrs Smith have just returned from a stay at this Mane boutique hotel, and just as soon as they've unpacked their L’Occitane lotions and wild honey, a full account of their French luxury countryside break will be with you. In the meantime, just to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Le Couvent des Minimes Hôtel & Spa in Provence…

Wandering through Le Couvent de Minimes’ flower-packed gardens, breathing in the lavender- and verbena-fragranced air, it’s easy to imagine the Minimes monks and nuns tending to their herbs and vegetables, gathering ingredients for meals and medicines. Although the convent’s original inhabitants were booted out during the French Revolution, it was only in the late 1990s that the last sisters left their sanctuary behind – paving the way for its latest incarnation as a luxurious hotel and spa.

Just as before, what blossoms around the creamy stoned 17th-century building flavours life inside. Not that long ago, the Franciscan sisters made natural remedies and took them out into the community for the sick. Today, skilled masseuses and beauticians use the same wild plants and aromas in the spa’s treatments and products. The hotel even has a little boutique in the cloister, where the L’Occitane range designed exclusively for Le Couvent des Minimes is sold, to the delight of bathing belles and beauty-conscious boys alike.

Nature impacts on the hotel in other ways. With all around the Provençal palette of green, purple, pink and red, the interior’s white, brown and eggshell hues are a pleasing contrast. Rooms have pared down but luxurious decor, with bowls of freshly cut orchids and white roses scenting the room, and ornamenting the glossy dark wood furniture. Then there’s the gastronomic restaurant, Le Cloître, and its sophisticated seasonal fare, which showcases the garden’s edible bounty. Far more than just a retreat for guests, visitors to the area are drawn here, with rumours of delicacies such as sea bass with fennel, or thyme-infused salted-butter-caramel pastries. Now, would the Minimes approve of all this sensual indulgence? Quite frankly my dear, we don’t give a damn.