Night at the Museum

On August 28^th 2012, we went to bed in the 21^st century but woke up in the 18^th. How? By staying at the Petit Hotel Labottiere in Bordeaux, France. The Petit Hotel Labottiere is many things: a private museum, an historic monument, an upscale bed and breakfast and the life’s work of a family.  Best of all, it offers a totally unique travel experience. I know ‘unique’ is an overused word but this is the real deal.

The story goes like this. Back in the 1960s, Liliane and Michel Korber purchased an elegant 18^th century hotel particulier that had fallen on hard times and spent the next 30 years bringing it back to life. They then decided to share this passion for the Age of the Enlightenment with like-minded travelers by creating two period rooms in an outbuilding of the property.

When we arrived, hot and dusty from a long drive from Spain, we were greeted by Daniel, the charming and urbane son of the proprietors who helped us settle in to our rooms, which were also charming – a bit like a Boucher tableau with modern cons, and some thoughtful treats in the little fridge courtesy of our hosts. (Caveat emptor. If you are looking for the standard luxury boutique experience, this ain’t it. It is more like staying at someone’s house who is very concerned about your comfort but it hasn’t been ‘designed’.) We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening enjoying the elegant streets and sights of handsome Bordeaux, a city with over 350 classified buildings, lovely restaurants and of course, lovely wine.

But our time travelling adventures really began the next morning when we awoke, threw open the heavy wooden shutters with ancient hardware and saw our breakfast waiting for us in the mansion courtyard.  Rich, gorgeous, abundant – I felt like Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette – but much happier. Throwing my Paleo Diet to the wind, I ate heroically, from another century. I ate it all.

After breakfast, we were given a sublime private tour of the mansion by Daniel. I have taken countless tours of countless mansions all over the world. Reader, this was something else. Here we have a son explaining both his parent’s life  – their choices, decisions, acquisitions and the same for the life of the original owner – an 18th bachelor property developer whose aesthetic aspirations live today thanks to the Korbers. This tour is a great time travelling experience. It is great social history. If your favorite thing to do is to imagine the past, I think you will love it too.

Petit Hotel Labottiere

14 rue Francis Martin

33000 Bordeaux

Tel: 00 33 556 484 410

contact@petithotellabottiere.fr

La Matelote and the Bearded Lady

You have to love a chef who is a descendant of a gingerbread selling hermaphrodite.

Such is the case with Tony Lestienne, the one star Michelin chef, who presides over the Hotel and Restaurant La Matelote in Boulogne-sur-Mer.

We visited La Matelote recently following a nine hour car journey through France and were delighted with the professional reception we received upon arrival being whisked out of our car and into our room in record time. Overlooking the port and beach of Boulogne, our room in the 4-star hotel was chic, contemporary and comfortable. We were damned happy to be there but too tired and lazy to make much use of the sauna and pool.

We did rally for a fine dinner at the Michelin one star restaurant. As one would expect, service was to a high professional standard but without the “sturm und drang” that often accompanies a high Michelin ranking. We immediately stress tested the staff’s conviviality by asking that our table be moved, given its proximity to the kitchen. Instead of treating us like trouble makers, we were moved, very charmingly, from the better room (filled with mostly French people) to a less atmospheric room (filled with mostly “rosbifs”). As an aside, the Editor hopes that the deft handling by Matelote will convince me, once and for all, to keep my mouth shut about choice of tables. We'll see.

Happily settled in what we now think of as the “rosbif” room, all three of us took the menu for €33, which in the case of the adults included fish soup and cod, and for our fish adverse daughter, featured carpaccio of veal and roast duck. Following our hard drive and with only a flight of stairs between us and our bed, we did manage to drink a lot which bumped up the bill, but as the Editor put it, “This may not be the best one star we have ever tried, but it certainly represents the best value.” Despite having consumed two bottles of excellent wine, dinner for three came to a relatively reasonable €181.

But what about the gingerbread selling bearded lady? Tony Lestienne is justifiably proud of this ancestor and has made a little brochure about Madame Lestienne, born in 1834, proudly cutting gingerbread in all her hairy splendour. It seems she was quite a celebrity in her day, selling in all the markets of northern France. In 1919 at the age of 85, she died on the job at her stall after, as the brochure puts it, “having made many young gourmands very happy with her cakes and sweeties”. In 2008, we can report, Tony Lestienne continues to make young and old gourmands very happy with his cooking and keen sense of hospitality, but, sadly, without such a fine, full face of hair.

La Matelote Hotel & Restaurant
80, Boulevard Sainte-Beuve
62200 Boulogne-sur-Mer
Tel: (33) 03 21 30 33 33
Fax: (33) 03 21 30 87 40
http://www.la-matelote.com/

Green, Sex, Cancer, Secret, Fat

Well actually, this post is about the Hotel Clery, located just outside Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France. Having read in the New York Times recently that “green, sex, cancer, secret, fat” are magic words that can catapult a story to fame and fortune instead of the spam file, we decided to see what magic words could do for NoCrowds.

If you are travelling in northern France, perhaps on your way to or from a ferry to the UK, you will find a comfortable chateau hotel set in a twelve acre GREEN and verdant park just outside the town of Boulogne. Built in 1766, the chateau is a fine example of 18th century romantic architecture and was once the residence of General Berthier when the town was under siege by Napoleon.

The 27 rooms are decorated to a high standard with very comy beds making them perfect for SEX. The only thing that might interfere with your lovemaking, or sleep for that matter, would be the naughty but elegant peacocks which have the run of the place. They like to stroll through the bar, peek into the restaurant, perch on the roof of the outbuildings and cry through the night. Their presence, while loud at times, nevertheless added a bit of glamour and fun to the experience.

As for the food, we had a first class dinner in the conservatory overlooking the beautiful park. The menu featured healthy, CANCER fighting ingredients from the region with many seafood options such as sea bass on a bed of mashed artichoke with fennel emulsion. We also enjoyed some particularly delicious local snails served in filo parcels with maroilles cheese, basil and parsley coulis. Dinner for three with wine and service came to €160 which seemed correct given the quality and sophistication of the meal.

In any event, the SECRET is out for British travellers wanting to overnight near Boulogne. On the evening we were there, the hotel was packed with fellow countrymen heading back to the UK. Despite the British invasion, hotel staff were in good spirits, although there was just a whiff of Faulty Towers about the place. Service in the restaurant was uneven, the machine at the desk had problems processing our credit card. But these were minor distractions from the overall good experience. We left feeling rested from our long journey, FAT and happy after our fine dinner and hoping to return again soon.

Hotel Clery
Rue du Chateau
62360 Hedsin l’Abbe
Tel: 03 21 83 19 83
Fax: 03 21 87 52 59
reservation@hotelclery-hesdin-labbe.com

Photo courtesy of the Hotel Clery website

La Villa Duflot Revisited

Those of you who read my post from last year will surely remember my description of the cavorting rats – don’t worry they were out in the garden, not in the rooms - and my suggestion that the hotel acquire a cat. Well, I’ll be darned, they’ve gone and gotten one with the unsurprisingly result that there was not a rat in sight. Everything else about the place remains the same from the secret garden, the retro building, the pretty pool and the excellent food. This is a very useful hotel to know about if you are travelling on the A9 motorway which links the city of Montpellier in southern France to Spain and with the addition of the cat, La Villa Duflot is now even better.

La Villa Duflot

Rond-point Albert Donnezan

66000 Perpignan

Tel: 04 68 56 67 67

Fax: 04 68 56 54 05

http://www.villa-duflot.com/

E-mail: contact@villa-duflot.com

Take your Family to Talloires

When the Fletcher School of Tufts University scheduled its annual European alumni gathering in Talloires in early June, we took the opportunity to organise a family holiday in the Lake Annecy region in France’s Savoy Alps during Eloise’s school holiday. We have been in the area many times but always in winter for skiing, never stopping during our mad dash from Geneva Airport to the larger resorts of Les Trois Vallee or L’Espace Killy. I have many things to thank the Fletcher School for - an education and a husband whom I met there - and now I can add to the list the fact that the school has introduced us to one of the best NoCrowds destinations in Europe for a family vacation.

To begin with, Talloires is dead easy to get to being roughly one hour from Geneva Airport by car. And while most airfares during school holidays rise to usurious levels, our British Airways flight from Heathrow’s Terminal 4 was inexpensive and filled mostly with bankers and well-dressed pensioners which was a refreshing change from the “flying bus” discount airlines we normally use. Naturally, the ever efficient Swiss were well organised on the other side and we were through customs, into our discount rental car and on the road in no time.

For our first evening, we elected to stay in the Faverges district in the mountains above the southern end of the lake and the scenery up there really is breathtaking. We stayed at Au Gay Sejour, a lovely converted 17th century Savoyard farmhouse with an excellent restaurant in the tiny hamlet of Seythenex. When we arrived, we were warmly greeted by Madame Gay who runs the front of house. We dropped off our bags and immediately took a hike through the countryside which included watching the cows being brought in for milking, exuberant horses enjoying fresh spring pastures, cherry trees loaded with fruit and lots of beautiful wildflowers. After our walk, we enjoyed drinks on the terrace while the children of the village played a naughty spitting game in the square below us, using the water from the ancient village cistern. Eloise, in the interest of making friends and improving her language skills was keen to join in, asking Jeff how one might say “May I spit at you” in French.

Dinner that evening in the hotel’s “Mistral Gourmand” restaurant, prepared by Monsieur Gay, featured fresh ingredients from the region presented in inventive ways. We had suckling pig, wild fish from Lake Annecy, snails, asparagus and fois gras as well as an excellent selection of Savoie cheeses and crèmes brulees flavoured with violets and mints. We washed it all down with a very good Vin de Savoie 2006 Chignin Mandeuse. As a demonstration of Monsieur and Madame Gay’s bonhomie, just as we had finished our meal and were about to leave the now empty dining room, guests arrived who had obviously gotten lost, were famished and very apologetic. Madame couldn’t have been nicer about it and they were served dinner despite the fact that it would mean a very late night for the proprietors.

After dinner, we got a good night’s sleep in a comfortable room at the top of the house with a lovely view down the valley. Breakfast, although expensive at €12 per person, is worth it because there isn’t an alternative within walking distance and the little extras such as fresh orange juice, alpine yoghurts and real hot chocolate make the meal more than just your average hotel continental breakfast. All in all, I really enjoyed this hidden alpine treasure and would recommend it to anyone looking for an unspoiled mountain refuge with professional service and excellent food. Quality comes at a price, particularly in this part of the world and we ended up spending €146 for our triple room and €202 for dinner. But it was a great way to start the holiday. After our fine breakfast, we bid farewell to Madame Gay, climbed back in the car and made our way down eastern shore of the lake to the lovely village of Talloires.

In 1896, when Cezanne arrived in Talloires to stay at the Hotel L’Abbaye, a converted 17th century Benedictine abbey which has been a hotel since the French Revolution, he commented that the town was a “superb vestige of times past.” Remarkably, when we arrived in Talloires in 2007, we said pretty much the same thing and the view of the bay, which Cezanne immortalised in his painting of Lake Annecy remains essentially unchanged. The atmosphere of the village is elegant and traditional with several exclusive four and five star hotels boasting seriously good restaurants, the most famous being the L’Auberge du Pere Bise, a star in France’s gastronomic firmament and a favourite of such notables as Winston Churchill, the Windsors and the Romanovs.

To try and hold down our costs, we stayed in the nicely situated and less formal three star Hotel Le Lac which is a good option for families. While the rooms could use an update, they were clean and perfectly correct. The pool was large and the garden had a ping pong table which kept Eloise busy. The feel was relaxed, staff was accomodating and internet access was included in our €150 a night triple. Given the number and the quality of the restaurants in the area, I would not go for the hotel’s half-board option and instead of the €15 breakfast (which we heard wasn’t great), we recommend having your petite dejeuner at the nearby Café de la Place, which is an old fashioned neighbourhood kind of a place with good coffee.

Upon arrival, as our hotel was a program participant, we were given a “Talloires en Liberte” card which offered free use of many activities in the village including mini golf, tennis, kayaking and bike hire. (A word of caution, many of the activities are not fully operational in late May/early June.) In addition to the above, there is a medieval castle in neighbouring Menthon where tours are conducted by costumed guides and an enormous Forest Adventure Park where children as young as 5 can scale cliffs and swing through the trees. A daily ferry service from Talloires to Annecy means you can visit the beautiful “mini Venice in the Alps” without the aggravation of traffic and parking problems. Overall, Talloires is a haven for children offering “city kids” like Eloise the chance to explore the village with her buddies like characters out of her favourite Enid Blyton stories.

Along with the many activities, fine dining is a big part of any visit to Talloires. On our first day, we had a fun, informal lunch on the terrace of La Savoyarde overlooking the beach where Eloise played Frisbee with a group of good looking Tufts University students and the next day we had an excellent lunch for a reasonable €50 at the L’abri-cotier Restaurant which is on the lake just outside the village near the l’Aquarama and camp grounds. The restaurant in the La Charpenterie Hotel has a cozy Savoyarde atmosphere and serves a good fondue (If you like that kind of thing) and good, reasonable alternatives if you don’t. As part of the Fletcher Symposium we ate two first class group meals at the L’Abbaye restaurant and “Le Cottage” which are both well known stops on France’s gastronomic roadmap. The fact that both restaurants effortlessly delivered such sophisticated and elegant meals to a group of 80 enthusiastic “networkers” speaks to their culinary capabilities.

And finally, it would not do our visit to Talloires justice if I did not say something about the incredible 11th century priory that is now the Tufts University European Center where our symposium took place. The priory was given to the University by a remarkable couple, the MacJannets, who dedicated their lives to international education and who, through their various schools and camps, left a lasting impact on the lives of Prince Phillip, Indira Ghandi and thousands of other young people. Today, the historic priory is the venue for a large number of programs, courses, seminars and conferences, all of which speak to the MacJannets’ mission of promoting understanding through international education. If you ever had a hankering to expand your mind in one of Europe’s loveliest villages, this is an amazing place and there are course offerings for learners of all ages. As Eloise inquired very early on during our stay, “So, Mom and Dad, how exactly do you get to go to this school?” We told her it was simple – keep your room clean, eat your vegetables, study hard and someday you might be lucky enough to be a student in Talloires.

Useful Addresses

Au Gay Sejour
Le Tertenox
74210 Seythenex
Tel: 04.50.44.52.52
Fax: 04.50.44.49.52
Hotel-gay-sejour@wanadoo.fr
www.hotel-gay-sejour.com

Hotel Le Lac
Rue Andre Theuriet
74290 Talloires
Tel: 04.50.60.71.08
Fax: 04.50.60.72.99
http://www.hotel-le-lac.com/

La Savoyarde Restaurant
Plage de Talloires
Route du Port
74290 Talloires
Tel/Fax: 04.50.60.71.54
lasavoyarde@cegetal.net

L’abri-cotier Restaurant
Centre Espace Lac
Angon 74290 Talloires
Tel: 04.50.60.70.45

La Charpenterie Hotel and Restaurant
Rue Andre Theuriet
74290 Talloires
Tel: 04.50.60.70.47
Fax: 04.50.60.79.07
http://www.la-charpenterie.com/

Hotel L’Abbaye
Chemin des Moines
74290 Taillores
Tel: 04.50.60.77.33
Fax: 04.50.60.78.81
http://www.abbaye-talloires.com/

Le Cottage Bise
Le Port
74290 Talloires
Tel: 04.50.60.71.10
Fax: 04.50.60.77.51
http://www.cottagebise.com/

Tufts University
Le Prieure
74290 Talloires
Tel: 04.50.60.74.04
www.ase.tufts.edu/FrenchAlps
France@tufts.edu

L'Assiette Champenoise = Motorway Magic

I am often asked if and when I would return to the United States to live and I invariably respond with Truman Capote’s fine remark that “all Southerners go home if only in a box”. But now that I think about it, two things in the US have to change before I would return: 1) the administration and 2) the food and hotels located off American highways.

As for the administration, regime change may be in the air but what in God’s name is to be done about sleeping and eating off America’s highways. By contrast, I’ve written a lot about the ability to fall off the highways of Europe and into unique hotels and great meals. This week, on our drive from London to Frankfurt, Germany for a very jolly birthday party, we stopped in France for the night at L’Assiette Champenoise, which is a fabulous restaurant (it has 2 Michelin stars) with beds.

Located a few minutes off of both the A4 (east/west) and A26 (north/south) highways and a few minutes outside of Reims in the Champagne region, this is a supremely convenient stopping point for travellers. Like La Villa Duflot in Perpignan, L’Assiette Champenoise sits in a beautiful four acre park hard up against an unattractive commercial zone which you do not notice because of the dense foliage and with a handsome turn-of-the-century chateau at the heart of the property; it sets the right tone for a grand night out. The hotel attached to the restaurant is rated four stars but that is certainly a stretch. The rooms, while charmingly decorated, have seen better days and at €162 for a room with a balcony, are hardly bargains. But still, this is a family run establishment and is certainly more interesting and authentic than any high end chain. But the real reason to sleep at L’Assiette Champenoise is that after dinner, you will have eaten and drunk way too much to go anywhere.

From the moment you sip your aperitif either out on the terrace or in the swanky bar, you know you are in for a very French, very serious gastronomic experience. This sense of the grand occasion grows as one enters the dining room where generous proportions and elegant table placement make every table seem important and dinner is treated as a theatrical event.

Following careful study, Jeff and I settled on one of the two menus on offer as we wanted to experience a meal as the chef, in this case the young, handsome and charismatic Arnaud Lallement, had conceived it. It being spring, our dinner began with three equisite treatments of petit pois which made me think again about the possibilities of this vegetable followed by a fabulous piece of St Pierre fish from Brittany with a chorizo sauce and mashed potatoes followed by pigeon “en croute” with spinach and foie gras, a cheese course and a blow-out dessert of either chocolate based or fruit based concoctions. An absolutely charming addition is Lallement’s nostalgic inclusion of all kinds of treats from one’s childhood with the dessert course including miniature cotton candy sticks, cannelles and lolli-pops. To go with all of this, we began with Sancerre “Marnier Lapostolle 2004” followed by a red wine of the region, a Gosset Ambonnay. This being a Michelin 2 star, one would expect excellent service and that’s what we found. Like a well trained orchestra, everything was delivered and presented perfectly. After the invasion in London of well meaning but sadly ignorant Eastern European waiting staff, it was a pleasure to watch these consummate professional at work.

All in all, it was one heck of a dinner considering our proximity to one of France’s major motorways. Yes, we spent a fortune. Dinner for two ran us a wopping €374 and one could criticise the food for being both a touch too elaborate and too much. But if I were to rate the overall experience of L’Assiette Champenoise, it was, in a word, wonderful. Lallement is a supremely talented chef (he describes himself as progressive and passionate), the dining room is gorgeous and we were blissfully happy to collapse afterwards into a very comfortable bed, as Jeff put it “completely done in by delicacies”.


L’Assiette Champenoise
Chateau de la Muire
40, Avenue Paul-Vaillant Couturier
51430 Tinqueux (Reims)
Tel: 03 26 84 64 64
Fax: 03 26 04 15 69
http://www.assiettechampenoise.com/

Romance on the Riviera

St Tropez. Who wouldn’t want to go to St Tropez? The name conjures images of film stars, money, glitz, Brigitte Bardot in her prime, gleaming white yachts, cruising sports cars, topless beaches and perfect sun tans. That being the case, you can imagine how thrilled Jeff and I were to receive an invitation to the most glamorous wedding on the St Tropez peninsula since Mick married Bianca in 1971. I had my doubts, however, whether the Cote d’Azur would turn out just too Over The Top for someone hoping to turn a dislike of crowds into a career.

As it turned out, La Croix Valmer, the village where the wedding ceremony was to take place, is only a short drive out of St Tropez, but light years away in terms of temperament and tempo. If St Tropez is the place to see and be seen, then Croix Valmer is a lower key alternative for those who want to get away from the hoi polloi and relax. I was charmed.

La Croix Valmer sits at the southern end of the St Tropez peninsula and is surrounded by vineyards, has several really beautiful sand beaches, and a substantial nature reserve perfect for hiking and getting away from everyone. At the suggestion of the bride’s family, we, along with most of the guests, stayed at the Parc Hotel L’Orangeraie, just outside of town, which must have been very “non plus ultra” during the Belle Epoque and is now a comfortable three star set in a park with a great pool and spectacular views over the bay. Staff are accommodating (and we certainly stress tested their ‘bonhommie’ during and after the festivities) although services are limited. The hotel does not have a restaurant or a bar but the receptionist will happily sell you drinks from the front desk. Our pretty double room with a fabulous sea view was a reasonable €126 per night in low season and although breakfast at €12 was steep for what it was, the fact that it was served out in the garden with such lovely views seemed to help justify the cost.

What makes La Croix Valmer and its beaches truly special is their position next to a vast tract of coastal land that has been set aside as a nature reserve, backing onto the justifiably famous and fun Gigaro beach with its surfers, lively bars and surprisingly good restaurants. The night we arrived, the groom’s family had an informal drinks party at the unpretentious beach bar and restaurant ‘Pepe Le Pirate’, at which point I stopped worrying about the entire Code d’Azur being too OTT. We also had several wonderful, informal and reasonably priced meals at the pretty beachside restaurant Couleurs Jardin, also in Gigaro. Although parking regulations are enforced, parking was hassle-free and plentiful. This was hardly the yacht choked, jet setting set-up I was expecting. I can’t speak about Gigaro in high summer, but in September, this place is blissful. I have been told that if you are willing to hike, even in high season, you can escape to empty beaches in hidden coves within the nature reserve.

On the Saturday morning of the wedding, hopeful that September 16 would be late enough in the season to take the topspin off the crowds, we set out for the famous Place des Lices market in St Tropez. But, of course, we underestimated the appeal of this world famous former fishing village, underestimating as well the fact that huge amounts of people wait until September to take their holidays. By late morning, the place was heaving, traffic was at a standstill and parking spaces were long gone. With that said, this is a really fun market and September is the perfect time to buy dirt cheap, incredibly sexy bikinis and knock-off Vilebrequin swim trunks. There’s lots of tourist tat and tee-shirts but you can also find keenly priced, good quality linens and cashmere as well as soaps, lavender and all kinds of fabulous food, much of which can be eaten as one strolls the rows of stalls. As the mother of the bride had so correctly cautioned us the night before, if you want to go to the market, be sure to get there early.

After we finished with the market, we walked down to the port which was heaving as well, which seemed to be the point of the place. We, like the rest of the plebeians, strolled along the space between the yachts and the bars and restaurants, hoping to see someone famous but only glimpsing lots of folks like ourselves looking hopeful. Jeff spent much time checking out the posted menus and prices and quickly began to lobby for heading out of town for lunch. We passed lots of boutiques which you can also find on Bond Street/Madison Avenue. The architecture in the old town is lovely. But I don’t feel we need to go back.

Still, later that day, after a beautiful ceremony, we did head back towards St Tropez for the reception at Les Moulins de Ramatuelle, a small inn and fabulous restaurant set in a lovely garden, only five minutes out of town. And as the French dramatist, Jean Anouilh, once remarked, “In France, everything, from weddings to duels, is merely a pretext for a good dinner." And what a brilliant dinner we had, set in an elegant dining room of white, blond and beige opening on to the a romantically lit garden. With five rooms, the intimate Moulin de Ramatuelle would be an good alternative for couples who want to be near the action of St Tropez but at the same time, stay out of the scrum.

So what’s the verdict on the Cote d’Azur? Maybe it was the charm of the young couple getting married, the attractiveness of their friends and family, the sun which finally came out after an ominous deluge, the lunch at Coulers Jardin or the dinner at the Moulin de Ramatuelle, but in any event, I loved it. And here are my tips to make sure you love it too. Go any time except July and August. Stay within walking distance of Gigaro beach. Have a sunset drink at Pepe the Pirate’s, stay off the road to Nice and get to the Lices market early.

Parc Hotel L’Orangeraie

Route de Ramatuelle

PB 33

83420 La Croix Valmer

Tel: 00 33 (0) 4 94 55 27 27

Fax: 00 33 (0) 4 94 54 38 91

Parchotel2@wanadoo.fr

http://www.lorangeraie-parc-hotel.com/

Coulers Jardin

Plage de Gigaro – La Croix Valmer

Tel: 04 94 79 59 12

Pepe Le Pirate

Plage de Gigaro – La Croix Valmer

Les Moulins de Ramatuelle

Route des Plages

83350 Ramatuelle

Tel: 00 33 (0) 4 94 97 1722

Fax: 00 33 (0) 4 94 97 85 60

www.christophe-leroy.com

Place des Lices Market

Tuesday and Saturday from 8:00 - 1:00pm

Photo of the beach at Gigaro

A Traditional Country House Hotel Near Marseilles

On the outskirts of the small town of Gemenos, near Cassis in the South of France, you will find another family owned and operated four star hotel which really delivers on the values of tradition, ambience and service.

And it speaks for the magic of the Bastide Relais de la Magdeleine that after a harrowing journey from chaotic London Gatwick airport where the computer system was down, followed by a 45 minute wait in line at the out-of-control Europcar agency at Marseilles Airport ( never use this place - the staff laugh at their discontented customers and argue amongst themselves), and an impressive Marseilles rush hour traffic jam, our travel weariness melted away the minute we made the turn into the driveway of this stately 18th century country house. The fact that we were soon sitting outside on the elegant and beautifully lit terrace with drink in hand discussing dinner with a knowledgeable young man who had brought us our menus, did much to soothe our many irritations.

The Relais de la Magdeleine has been run by the same family since 1932 and one senses immediately the benefits of their experienced, hands-on approach. The house, which is set in a large park full of ancient trees, is beautifully decorated with country antiques and period reproductions. The public spaces, both inside and out, are wonderful. There are comfortable areas to sit and read, fireplaces for chilly evenings and impressive settings for dining. Our room and bath were spacious, well appointed and decorated.

The hotel has a first class restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and dinner which is presided over by another member of the Marignane family who focusses on serving the specialties of the region. There is a large pool in the garden perfect for sun bathing . Best of all, prices are more reasonable than an equivalent Relais and Chateau property and the atmosphere is less pretentious. We spent €124 per person which included breakfast and dinner but not drinks. The hotel is perfectly located for touring Provence being close to Marseille, Aix en Provence and Toulon-Cassis.

This was our second stay at this hotel which we visited roughly five years ago. I liked it then. I like it even more now as I grow in appreciation of the meticulous attention to detail and traditional values on offer at the Relais de la Magdeleine, which results in a stay that is restful, romantic and good value for the high end. We’ll be back.

Bastide Relais de la Magdeleine
RN 396 13420 Gemenos
Tel: 04 42 32 20 16
Fax: 04 42 32 02 26
http://www.relais-magdeleine.com/

La Villa Duflot - One for the Road

Last summer (how sad that sounds), while waiting to meet my brother for lunch off 5th Avenue in Manhattan, I spent an unproductive 30 minutes in Borders searching travel guides for a pleasant place to stay off Interstate 95 on my return trip to North Carolina. The whole damn highway seems to have been colonised by Mariott Courtyards and the like. What I was looking for but couldn’t find was a hotel that wasn’t a chain, which was connected to its location and was run by owners. In the end, I spent a dreary night in a Hampton Inn in Spotsylvania.

By way of contrast, later in the summer, I spent a charming evening at La Villa Duflot, an individually owned and operated four-star hotel in Perpignan, France that was also just off a major highway (the A9 which links Montpellier to Spain) and next to one of the ugliest commercial zones you will ever encounter. Formerly an architect’s villa, the hotel consists of 25 rooms built around a beautiful park-like garden with sufficient foliage to hide the fact that the next door neighbour is the Auchan hypermarket.

Set in a secret garden, the retro building and eccentric artwork immediately communicate that this is a hotel run by and for “individuals” and that’s what I like about it. The rooms are of generous size, well equipped and decorated in a slightly weird but appealing art deco style. The nicest rooms are located off of the garden which has striking and unusual statues and a large and pretty pool where you can lounge around in white robes like film stars and order drinks. In summer, the glass dining room doors open completely and tables spill out into the garden beside and around the pool which provides a really romantic dining experience “en plein air”. The food is sophisticated and delicious and the restaurant is consistently filled with tables of celebrating locals.

As for cost, La Villa Duflot provides good value for money in the luxury category. We went for the Mini Suite (on the garden) with half-board which for €256 for two, considering how good the food was, seemed more than fair. In years past, we have stayed at the Domaine d’Auriac, a Relais and Chateau property down the road near Carcassone that cost double what we spent at Villa Duflot, granted it was next to a golf course rather than a supermarket.

And on a note related to its commercial location, I would be withholding information if I did not tell the little story about cavorting rats. Yes, that’s right, rats. The story goes like this. I was sitting beside the pool admiring the garden and enjoying a brilliant breakfast, when my attention was drawn to a number of small objects scurrying about on the far side of the garden. It took the longest time to believe my eyes. Mon Dieu – these are no little woodland creatures – these are rodents from next door! Anyway, it seems the rats know their place and restrict themselves to providing breakfast time entertainment on the far side of the park.

In any event, the cavorting rats did not put me off Villa Duflot. On so many criteria, this hotel delivers. It is an oasis where you least expect to find one. It is idiosyncratic and at the same time has a retro glamour that is big fun. It is comfortable, has an excellent kitchen, attentive staff and fair prices. Compared to the offerings of Interstate 95, it is paradise. What it does need, however, is a cat.

La Villa Duflot
Rond-point Albert Donnezan
66000 Perpignan
Tel: 04 68 56 67 67
Fax: 04 68 56 54 05
http://www.villa-duflot.com/
E-mail: contact@villa-duflot.com

Top Paris Hotels Fined

According to today's Financial Times, "six of Paris's most opulent hotels, where rooms cost on average more than EUR700 (£479) a night and suites can cost more than EUR6,000, have been fined by the French competition watchdog for collusion. The Bristol, the Crillon, the Geoge V, the Meurice, the Plaza Athenee and the Ritz, all renowned for their historic buildings, squadrons of attentive staff and Michelin-starred restaurants, were found to have regularly exchanged confidential commercial information."

I've been sitting over my morning's paper trying to decide whether this story tells you more about top end French hotels or top end French bureacracy. Regardless, it is another compelling reason to go for smaller, more charming and more interesting hotels or even better, live like a native, avoid the price fixing and rent an apartment.

Click here to see the full Financial Times story.