Need to know

Rooms

19 rooms in nine houses.

Rates

Low season, €260–€645; high season, €350–€770, including tax but not breakfast (€25).

Check-out

Midday, but later check-out may be possible, subject to availability.

Facilities

Spa with hammam, steam room and indoor pool, library, DVD selection, free WiFi throughout, helicopter landing area. In rooms: flatscreen TV, DVD/CD player, coffee-maker, minibar, air-con in most suites, Kiehl’s and Daniela Steiner toiletries.

Poolside

Built from sandy dry-stone, the hotel’s slender infinity pool looks out over the sculpture-filled gardens to the horizon. There’s a heated indoor waterhole in the spa too.

Children

Cots are €18 a night; extra beds can be added for €45. Reception can arrange babysitting for €20 an hour, and can also recommend child-friendly activities in the area, such as horse riding, tennis and rafting.

Eco-friendly

There’s an extensive recycling programme, including the generation of compost for use in the hotel’s organic vegetable gardens. The outdoor pool has a solar-powered heat pump.

Hotel closed

4 January to 27 March 2009.

Also

Non-smoking throughout. There’s a two-night minimum stay between May and September. Small, ‘well educated’ pets are welcome for €18 a night.

In the know

Our favourite rooms

Each of the nine guesthouses in Domaine des Andéols is individually decorated, but all share a feel for cutting-edge design and an eye for artwork. Although it’s the smallest, we’re (appropriately) enamoured with La Maison des Amoureux, so-named because of its significance in the owner’s romantic past (ask him). The one-bedroom house not only features David Bailey photography and Philippe Starck furniture, but also a dainty balcony from where you can admire jaw-plummeting views of the countryside and the tiny village of Saint-Saturnin-lés-Apt. Light, bright Maison des Cascades and artefact-filled Maison du Voyageur are the largest, with two to three rooms apiece and their own private pools and garden areas. La Maison de l’Artiste is the most homey and relaxing, with natural stone floors, neutral tones and lavender-field views.

Packing tips

Your glammest Balenciaga swimwear for poolside posing. Leave your books at home – the hotel library is full of engrossing coffee-table leaf-throughs – but pack a sketchpad or a notebook for when the landscape-inspired muse strikes.

Also

Domaine des Andéols sits at the heart of a vast agricultural estate, which produces large quantities of fruits, veg and herbs. Help yourself to crimson tomatoes or juicy olives as you wander the grounds – and look out for the 400-year-old plane tree,

Food & drink

Hotel restaurant

Michelin-star collector Alain Ducasse oversees the hotel restaurant, La Maison des Saveurs, an impressively chandeliered dining room serving innovative French cuisine in a pebble-floored, glass-tabled space.

Dress code

Arty chic with a boho flourishes.

Top table

There are lots of top spots: under the recreation of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam on the ceiling, a table on the far end of the terrace overlooking the gardens, or beside the library where the panoramas outside are reflected in the mirror panels.

Last orders

Lunch is on offer between 12.30pm and 2.30pm; dinner from 7.30pm until 9.45pm.

Room service

Snacks and meals available in-room between lunchtime and 9.30pm.

Hotel bar

The lounge area by the spa pool is a great place to relax with the Domaine des Andéols signature ‘Violetta’ cocktail, but you can enjoy a drink anywhere on the property.

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Smith concierge

If you'd prefer to talk to someone, or don't want to book online, call our travel team on 1 866 610 3867. We guarantee you’ll get the best available rates, and we don’t charge a booking fee.

Domaine des Andéols

Les Andéols, St Saturnin les Apt