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Living France: September 2010
Category: Books - France
Five French Fancies
“uncovering Frances most romantic holiday hideaways”
Mr & Mrs Smith – the boutique and luxury hotel experts – are back with a brand new guidebook uncovering France's most romantic holiday hideaways, from bijou Basque bolt-holes to pretty Provençal farmsteads. Lucy Fennings reveals five of the best secret stays from their latest travel tome
La Vie en rose
Orgon, Provence
Style: Fine-looking farmhouse
Setting: Bordered by rocky hills near St-Rémy-de-Provence, and surrounded by scented lavender bushes, aromatic pine and bullet-shaped cypress trees, this dreamy rural 17th-century smallholding has been converted into a luxury maison d’hôte. The setting – a beautiful farm estate that now incorporates a swimming pool, tennis court and a golf range – is unmistakeably Mediterranean, and the new owners have retained the property's Provençal feel without resorting to sunflower prints or jaunty blue and yellow bedspreads. The linen-clad beds look especially enticing, with delicately quilted cotton bedspreads and piles of overstuffed pillows. Soft and neutral colours tone gently with limewashed walls and low beams, there are creeper-shaded terraces for summer and huge stone fireplaces for winter, and the surrounding region is positively packed with distracting day-trips and jaunt-worthy sights.
The boudoirs to book: Room 6 is light and spacious, overlooking the front garden, and Room 9 has a jasmine-scented private patio with bistro table and chairs; lovebirds will lust after Room 14, the honeymoon suite, which has an ornately carved headboard in the bedroom and a vintage roll-top tub in the bathroom. Families or pairs of couples should book the apartment, which is separate from the main building and has two bedrooms in milk white and dove grey hues.
In the know: Challenge your Provençale palate with a wine and olive-oil tasting at the beautiful Valdition estate, next door to the hotel.
Rooms: Eight, including three suites.
Rates: €180-€350 (£147-£287), including tax. Breakfast, €22 (£18).
Whirl about town
Montpellier, Languedoc-Roussillon
www.baudondemauny.com
Style: Château in the city
Setting: It may be an heirloom, but there's nothing hand-me-down about this historic property's fixtures and fittings: walk-in Italian rain showers are cleverly hidden behind room-dividing bed-heads; modern lamps guard doorways in pairs and mid-century-style furnishings give the look edge. The 7th-generation owners of this Montpellier townhouse have added plenty of 21st-century design nous to the original Louis XVI features, creating a refined (but never fussy) period piece. Neck-craningly high ceilings, elegant panelling, delicate plasterwork and oversize marble fireplaces have been restored and complemented with Cole & Sons' eccentric wallpaper prints, including parades of pink flamingos and bold butterflies.
The boudoirs to book: Junior suite Les Gypseries has a mammoth-tubbed bathroom, floor-to-ceiling windows and walk-in wardrobe; a hand-carved bucolic scene and faux-fur bedspread may sound rustic, but it's all swag-free and minimal. The two ground-floor suites, Les Papillons and Les Pavôts, are the ones to earmark for family trips or long stays: they share a full kitchen. The flamingo-themed room is superior double Les Flamants Roses.
In the know: Montpellier is eminently flâneur-friendly: once you've explored the Ecusson (old centre), stroll further afield to the grittier Cours Gambetta, studenty Rue de l'Université or neoclassical developments in Antigone. Make time for the overhauled Musée Fabre, well endowed with artistic gems from the 1600s–1900s.
Rooms: Five: two suites, two junior suites and a superior double.
Rates: €160–€250 (£131-£205), including tax. Breakfast, €15 (£12).
Get away from it all
CHEZ ODETTE
Williers, Champagne-Ardenne
www.chez-odette.com
Style: Mood-lit modern maisons
Setting: This Williers café-bar has been serving up Picon and kirsch since World War II, when the eponymous owner Odette's customers were prohibition-hit, border-hopping Belgians. The original landlady’s legacy is honoured along the walls of the bustling bar-bistrot with black-and-white photos depicting villagers of yesteryear; and locals still consider a drink at Odette's zinc bar an essential end-of-day pilgrimage. Nine bedrooms across two restored farmhouses bring together original features such as fireplaces and exposed beams with thoroughly modern design: sleek panelled walls, minimal fuss, moody dark hues, sculptural lighting and pony skin-topped stools. It’s an unexpectedly refined atmosphere for such a remote spot; perfect if you want to ditch the urban pace of life without losing life's luxuries.
The boudoirs to book: No 9 has everything going for it: peaceful privacy, far from any bustle, dark-wood walls, a working open fireplace, deep-set bath with separate shower, and wonderful views of the village and fields beyond. No 5 has exposed beams and a spacious, barn-like feel. No 1 is ideal for families – huge, with bay windows.
In the know: L’Abbaye d’Orval, the brewing base of the famous Orval Trappist ale, is just across the border in beer-loving Belgium.
Rooms: Nine, including two suites.
Rates €170–€260 (£139-£213), including tax. Breakfast, €19 (£15).
A breath of fresh air
Guéthary, Aquitaine
www.arguibel.fr
Style: Daring design kaleidoscope
Setting: If this seductive Smith stay were a fantasy design couple, it would be Philippe Starck and Vivienne Westwood: bold, unique, perhaps to some de trop, but ever practical and always a pleasure to spend time with. Behind the Alpine-style timbered façade of Basque farmhouse, Arguibel is a beautifully balanced jewel-box interior: heady contrasts such as orange cushions on turquoise sofas and striped carpet alongside chequerboard flooring typify owners' Mariannick and François Brasserre’s fearless approach to style. The artworks by Susanne Pettersson Bergman, lighting by Mat & Jewski and poised contemporary furnishings reflect the couple’s understanding of and passion for avant-garde design. Outside, beyond the sun deck, sloping lawns give way to sheep-dotted, Atlantic-hugged countryside – the surf-and-turf paradise between Biarritz and St-Jean-de-Luz that will lure golfers, gourmands and go-seers away from Arguibel's delights.
The boudoirs to book: Suite Paul-Jean Toulet is a turquoise tour-de-force, with sleek high-design details in bedroom, sitting room and bathroom. Two sets of French doors open onto a balcony with a dining table for four. Of the rooms, Charlie Chaplin (number 30) is the biggest, but Betry Daguerre (number 63) wins our hearts with its angel-white decor, driftwood bedstead and pebble-shaped pouffe.
In the know Breakfast – taken in the colour-soaked salon or on the sun-soaked deck – is an oh-so-Continental spread that's like a French farmers' market in microcosm: fresh fruits, petit pots of yoghurt, just-baked brioche, bread and pastries, and wonderful coffee.
Rooms: Five, including two suites.
Rooms: Five, including two suites.
Rates€110–€270 (£90-£221), including tax. Breakfast, €15 (£12).
The fairytale ending
Alençon, Normandy
Style: Stately and sexy
Setting: There are French château hotels, with their 'heritage' carpets, reverential but ineffective staff and hushed auras, and then there's Château de Saint Paterne – a family-owned, family-friendly castle that has thrown open its oversized double doors and invited guests to romp over its 25-acres grounds, splash in its pool, and bound across its tennis courts like happy-go-lucky royals. Don't think there's anything unspecial about the interiors, though: every room is dressed with individually-sourced vintage props – a floral garland here, a needlework footstool there –perfect for prompting improvised love scenes. The Moroccan-inspired games room is apparently the site of several marriage proposals…
The boudoirs to book: With an open bathroom, vast wooden bed and a wall covered in a hand-painted 19th-century stage backdrop from Barcelona, the huge self-contained Superior Suite L'Orangerie is theatrical, seductive and soundproof. Chocolate-coloured, red-peppered Chambre des Mystères is the château's most modern room, romantically secluded up two twisty-turrety flights of stairs. For a stay that's steeped in history, choose the Chambre d'Henri IV, where France's first Bourbon king kipped. Junior suite Canards and luxury suite Roseraie are best for families, although extra beds can be added to every room except Maréchal for €15 a night (cots are free).
In the know: Some of France’s finest stone-cottage scenery is just a short drive away, in the romantic village of Saint-Céneri-le-Gérei. Grown-ups can indulge in a little me-time with an in-room massage, and, after the children have had their own early supper at 7pm and been tucked in upstairs, enjoy a terrific set dinner prepared by owner Charles-Henry de Valbray.
Rooms: 10, including six suites.
Rates: €135–€240 (£110-£197), including tax. Breakfast, €13 (£10).
fact file
Mr & Mrs Smith Hotel Collection: France (Spy Publishing, £19.95) is available in good bookshops from July. Featuring 31 handpicked hotels, each personally visited by Mr & Mrs Smith and anonymously reviewed by in-the-know tastemakers. Every guidebook also includes a free BlackSmith membership card, entitling you to a year's worth of travel and hotel benefits, from shopping discounts to free champagne and spa treatments. To order your copy, visit mrandmrssmith.com/shop