Provence, France

Château de Fonscolombe

Price per night from$316.70

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR292.73), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Regal redux

Setting

The painter’s playground

Those in search of a life filled with sun, salons and stately ease will find it at Château de Fonscolombe, a restored 18th-century seat near Aix-en-Provence. Owned by wealthy humanists for more than two centuries, the château finally threw open its doors in 2017 after spending 18 months under the knife, a project that saw more than 50 artisans working on its historic rooms. Pale paints and bright fabrics were used to lend a modern touch, but the Chinese silk wallpaper, regal furniture and golden chandeliers ensure the house is still every inch a noble. On the ground floor, the salons are as sumptuous as ever, giving guests a place to sip cocktails over backgammon, billiards or a novel by Victor Hugo. In the restaurant, adept chef Nadège Serret cooks up a perfect storm of modern Provençal cuisine, best enjoyed on the shady terrace with a bottle of the estate's own wine.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A cheese plate and tasting of two wines with the sommelier; Silver- and GoldSmiths also get free breakfast

Facilities

Photos Château de Fonscolombe facilities

Need to know

Rooms

50, including 13 suites.

Check–Out

Noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 4pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £275.92 (€322), including tax at 10 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of €3.30 per person per night on check-out.

More details

Rates don’t include breakfast. The Continental menu (€30 per person, and free for under-12s) includes homemade bread and pastries; on the à la carte menu, you’ll find gourmet offerings like dry-cured Savoie ham and smoked haddock.

Also

Many of the chateau’s owners were keen on science and botany – one of the reasons the grounds have been planted with over 180 species of tree. One of the oldest is the atlas cedar at the front gate, said to have been planted centuries ago by one of England’s queens.

Hotel closed

The hotel’s usually closed from November to April each year.

At the hotel

Landscaped gardens; library; beauty salon; games room; free WiFi throughout; laundry. In rooms: flatscreen TV, minibar, Rose & Marius bath products, tea- and coffee-making facilities.

Our favourite rooms

Even the entry level rooms have terracotta-tiled floors and views of the gardens or château court, but we’d swing for one of the junior suites, which often have regal features like high ceilings, marble fireplaces and reading nooks hidden behind plush curtains.

Poolside

The heated, outdoor pool is in the gardens, a few minutes’ walk from the steps of the château. Sunloungers and parasols are arranged around the outside, and there’s a pool house with a bar that’s open in summer, ensuring drinks and light bites are within arm’s reach.

Spa

After a day spent exploring the estate, limber up in the impressive hammam salon, which has a tall, arched ceiling, a wooden-fronted hammam and an elegant lounge area with a tree of life painted on the wall. There’s also a beauty salon for massages, hand treatments and facials, and a fitness room with rowing and resistance machines, free weights and floor mats.

Packing tips

If you’ve got space to spare, bring an extra bag for a few bottles of the hotel’s wine.

Also

All of the château’s common areas are wheelchair accessible, as are some of the suites on the ground floor.

Pet‐friendly

Pets under 12 kilogrammes are welcome for €50 a night. See more pet-friendly hotels in Provence.

Children

All ages are very welcome.

Food and Drink

Photos Château de Fonscolombe food and drink

Top Table

In summer, go for one of the tables in the terrace, which are shaded by the fan-like branches of bald cypress trees.

Dress Code

You no longer need a gilet-veste or a wig to get in, but guests do tend to smarten up a little for dinner.

Hotel restaurant

Restaurant L’Orangerie is the most modern space at the hotel – something the architects took full advantage of by installing floor-to-ceiling windows, giving most tables a view across the gardens and forest. Helming the kitchen is chef Marc Fontanne, who spent years working at Michelin-star restaurants before taking up residence at the château. His menus always change with the seasons, showcasing the best of southern French produce – some of the vegetables and herbs come from the hotel’s own garden. For the best experience, go for the seven-course tasting menu, which changes according to Durand’s inspiration that day. For something extra special, the hotel's newest addition, La Table de l'Orangerie, is an intimate fine dining experience overlooking the historical gardens. Using the best local ingredients, expect subtly sophisticated dishes; perfectly cooked red mullet, Provence courgette or prawns with caramelised lemon. And don't forget dessert – Durand whips up an excellent salted caramel mille-feuille in a nod to his Breton heritage.

Hotel bar

The lounge bar is in one of the regal salon rooms, and the parquet floor, deep armchairs and gilt-framed paintings make it the perfect match for a mid-afternoon cocktail or post-dinner cognac. The wine list is extensive, and includes all the estate’s own wines. There’s also a second, smaller bar next to the wine cellar used for private tastings.

Last orders

Breakfast is served from 7am to 11am; lunch from noon to 2pm; dinner from 7pm to 9.30pm.

Room service

There’s a reduced room service menu with pasta dishes and cold plates.

Location

Photos Château de Fonscolombe location
Address
Château de Fonscolombe
Route de Saint-Canadet
Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade
13610
France

The château is in the communeof Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, about 20 minutes’ drive from Aix-en-Provence.

Planes

Marseille International Airport is closest, and can be reached directly from London Heathrow. It takes around 40 minutes to drive from the airport to the hotel; private transfers are available from €85 each way.

Trains

High speed TGV trains arrive at the Aix-en-Provence Mediterranean station, a 15-minute drive from the centre of the city. Trains from Lyon take an hour to get there; services from Paris take three. The hotel can arrange transfers from the station for €65 each way.

Automobiles

You won’t need a car if you’re planning on sticking to the hotel and its grounds, but with national parks, stately châteaus and mediaeval villages within a short drive, having your own set of wheels will certainly come in handy. If you want to hire, the Smith24 team can arrange it.

Worth getting out of bed for

To stay at the château is to experience life as it was enjoyed by the aristocrats that built it. Once filled with visiting nobles, the salons offer the same leisurely atmosphere and distractions as they did in their heyday, including an antique billiards table, a piano and backgammon sets. If it’s peace and seclusion you’re after, try the library, home to a set of original Victor Hugo novels. Outside, you can follow in the footsteps of courting nobles by taking a turn around the French gardens, which are perfumed by Provencâl flowers and shaded by rare trees. When you do venture beyond the hotel’s grounds, be sure to make the trip to Ventabren, a historic hilltop town crested by the ruined château of Queen Jeanne. The steep cobbled streets, stone water fountains and 17th-century church are have been painstakingly preserved over the years, and the town also lays claim to the largest stone aqueduct in the world, a triumph of 19th-century engineering that rises 83 metres from the valley floor. For art and 18th-century architecture, visit the Caumont Art Centre in Aix-en-Provence, a gallery housed in the town’s most sumptuous hotel particulier. In summer it's given over to the work of a single artist; in winter, touring collections adorn the walls. Aix also hosts several popular markets, where traders sell authentic Provençal goods. Ripe fruit and plump vegetables are sold at the bottom of the Cours Mirabeau every day; on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, local crafts are on sale in the Espace Cézanne and antiques can be bartered over on Avenue Victor Hugo. You’ll see references to Aix’s most famous resident, Cézanne, all over the city. His hillside studio – which he worked in every day for the last four years of his life – is in Les Lauves, a 15-minute walk north from the city centre.

Local restaurants

For a long alfresco lunch with excellent wine, try La Terrasse at winery Château La Coste. The menu is typically Provençal and many dishes are made with produce plucked straight from the château’s kitchen garden. As the name suggests, the seating is all outside, centred around a stone fountain and bordered by the manicured gardens. For dinner, book a table at Le Saint Esteve, where Chef Mathias Dandine has earned a Michelin star for his efforts in the kitchen. The focus is naturally on the food, but the soaring mountain view is just as impressive – book in advance to secure a table on the terrace. For a meal in a more historic setting, try Villa Gallici, where the dining room has a parquet floor, patterned velvet chairs and custard-and-cream wallpaper swirled with flowers. Both the à la carte and set menus are rooted in the region’s cuisine, but chef Christophe Gavot doesn’t shy away from playing with more modern cooking and flavours. Book well in advance.

Local bars

You’re unlikely to find anywhere local that does a better cocktail than the hotel.

Reviews

Photos Château de Fonscolombe reviews

Anonymous review

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this country house hotel in Provence and unpacked their wine from the hotel estate, a full account of their stately break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Château de Fonscolombe in Provence…

In 1730, the French aristocrat was sitting pretty. As the first stones were being laid at Château de Fonscolombe, the French Revolution was still a good 60 years off, and Paris was arguably the most fashionable capital in Europe. Roving from one country seat to the next, nobles would no doubt have gathered at Fonscolombe, enjoying the distractions of the salon and the privacy of the perfumed gardens, where a romance could blossom away from prying eyes. We don't have details, of course, because the house would have been off limits to anyone without rank and title – until now. After 18 months of restoration and refurbishment, the château opened its doors in 2017, giving in-the-know travellers a chance to enjoy a slice of that same life of leisure. The salons are now in full swing again, with spaces for sampling the estate wines, reading Victor Hugo and playing the baby grand piano. The gardens have never looked better, and are now home to an outdoor pool with a summer bar – something the 18th-century inhabitants didn’t have. Another area that’s undoubtedly better is the food – rising star Nadège Serret is at the helm in the kitchen, bringing a forward-thinking attitude to classic Provençal cuisine. Both the tasting and à la carte menus are worth taking your time over – in fact, we’d recommend eating there at least twice…

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Price per night from $316.70