Several miles short of Auberge La Fenière, my destination on day one of a solitary cycling tour of the Luberon region of Provence, I mistimed braking for a village speed bump and landed on the tarmac, tangled in my bike. The car coming up behind me was far enough back to stop well before reaching me. A car coming in the opposite direction slowed down and stopped alongside. The driver rolled down her window and asked if she should call for help. I stood up, pulled my bike to the side of the road, picked up my saddlebags, and told the driver that I was alright. I twisted the front wheel back straight, uncoiled and reset the brake lines, bent the mud guard back into position, and set off wobbly on the final miles to La Fenière, thinking all the way, “Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap.”

I wasn’t alright. I was battered, bleeding and my ribs hurt. Already I was late arriving at La Fenière, a property (hotel, restaurants, vegetable garden, pool) that owner-chef Nadia Sammut calls a “lieu de vie” or living space. Earlier in the afternoon, I’d lost my way—allowed myself to lose my way—on the slopes of the Luberon Massif and dawdled along its vantage points. I’d planned to arrive at least an hour earlier so as to check in, shower, speak with Nadia, then rest up before dinner. “We’ve been expecting you,” said the receptionist, and seeing my bloody forearm, “Oh my, what happened?” “A little accident.” “Do you want me to call someone? Do you want to go to the hospital?” “No, but if you have some bandages that would help.” She gave me an emergency kit with bandages and antiseptic.

Up in my room—a bright, peaceable space with a long view of the back of the property and the nearby hillside—I looked at myself in the mirror. I was banged up alright. My ribs and thigh and wrist were sore. I had three more days of biking ahead of me. Should I call it quits now? I cleaned and bandaged myself. The bleeding—rough scrapes but no gashes—would soon stop. How badly was I injured? I couldn’t tell. But I shivered at the thought of how lucky I was, aware that my fall could have been worse, much worse. (Yes, I was wearing a helmet.) I had a reservation for the second seating at the restaurant, so I napped for an hour then went downstairs.

As I reached the lobby, I saw Nadia passing through the patio dining area and the kitchen. I introduced myself and apologized for arriving too late to speak with her earlier. In the rush of dinner I had a first glimpse of her generosity of spirit. “I hear you had an accident,” she said, “Are you alright?” I assured her that I was. She said, “We’ll take care of you,” she said, “and we have all morning tomorrow to talk, if you’d like.”

Ernest Hung Do, the sommelier and maître d’, came over to my table to say hello. I told him that I’d just had a “little biking accident” and could use something strong, say, whiskey, to start. He went inside and returned with a bottle of perfumed gin. He explained how and where it was made. But rather than pour a glass, he told me that he didn’t recommend that I have it. Nadia’s meal is constructed to evolve from dish to dish, he explained, and strong alcohol would affect its proper unfolding.

“What do you recommend instead?” I asked.

“Why not just let the meal express itself and I’ll bring some wine?” he said.

“Fine,” I said, “I’d rather not make choices tonight anyway. I’ll follow your lead, and Nadia’s.”

Two dozen peas and a verbena leaf

Nadia Sammut is a culinary explorer. The 12 or so dishes of the 160€ “expérience” tasting menu proceed through a fluid evolution of ingredients and textures that awaken the senses, from the intentionally bland opening to the iodized middle to the smooth finish. (There’s also a 120€ “découverte” tasting menu, but no à la carte menu.)  Nadia’s quest isn’t so much to astonish, I think, but to create harmony. Ernest’s, too, for that matter; the meal was accompanied by Ernest’s coherent yet unobtrusive wine pairing.

“Precise” is how I thought of the slow parade of small dishes that evening, while “consciousness” is a term that Nadia Sammut applies to her culinary approach. The two terms meet in what appeared to be the simplest of dishes: two dozen peas and a verbena leaf the size of a daisy petal. Deceptively simple, though the full description of the dish is more complex: petit pois, crème de placenta de fève, verveine, bourrache, cardamone noire râpée, huile du domaine de Jasson. Still, I can only think of the dish as two dozen peas and a verbena leaf, and for me it lit up the patio. It was my satori moment.

Yes, it’s a dish that can easily be ridiculed: She charges how much for two dozen peas and a tiny leaf? But there you have it, the appetizer through which I realized that such culinary moments are a way of bringing one into oneself: one’s taste buds, one’s environment, one’s sense of self and of a shared meal, both with one’s table companion(s), if any, and with diners at other tables with whom you might never exchange a word. I hadn’t forgotten the physical nature of my fall several hours earlier, but I was no longer restrained by the trauma of it or by my awareness that the following day or two would reveal the full extent of my injuries. Two dozen peas and a verbena leaf allowed me to settle into the—do I dare use the word?—enlightenment of the meal, the surroundings, the evening and my travels into the Luberon. What a beautiful biking day it had been, landing me here!

No, I wasn’t cured from my fall. But I was, for the moment, soothed of it and conscious above all that it could have been much worse. (Five days later I would consult my doctor in Paris. As impressed as he was that I’d continued biking for three days after the fall, he told me that he would have recommended against it. He sent me for x-rays of my left wrist and right ribs. Turns out that I had broken a bone in my wrist, though it was the ribs, apparently without fracture, that hurt more.) But for now, I was pleased with my good fortune of feeling well enough to experience dinner at La Fenière and digesting my trauma while enjoying a precise and natural gastronomy, Nadia Sammut’s gastronomy of nature.

There are greater traumas, of course, not all of which can be soothed by kind service, a good meal and a peaceable setting. Still, all traumas need to be digested, don’t they? Linguistic aristocrats and associated snobs in France will tell you that it’s gauche to wish fellow diners a “bon appétit” before a meal; “appétit,” they’ll say with condescension, refers to the unpleasantries of digestion, which isn’t something one should mention at a polite table. But digesting one’s worries and traumas and anxieties is clearly commendable and worth wishing on one another, like raising a glass to each other’s good health. Furthermore, Nada, having dealt with celiac disease, naturally and implicitly wishes a healthy, nourishing digestion for all of her guests. Bon appétit for sure.

Gluten-free and rooted in Provence

Nadia’s “cuisine libre” (free cooking) approach, as she calls it, is neither a refusal of nor in opposition to the cuisine(s) of Provence. She remains deeply rooted in the region. Her family has lived in the Luberon for several generations. In 1972, her grandmother opened a little bistro in an old hayloft, called une fenière in Provence, in the village of Lourmarin. She then worked with her son, Nadia’s father. And when he married, his wife, Reine, learned how to cook alongside her mother-in-law. Reine Sammut eventually took over the restaurant and, in 1995, became one of the rare women in France at the time to receive a Michelin star for her cuisine. Well-known throughout Provence and beyond, Reine prepared rather traditional gastronomy. In 1996, Nadia’s parents then bought the property that is La Fenière’s current location in the countryside between Lourmarin and Cadenet. Though no longer installed in a hayloft, they brought the name with them.

At around the age of 30, between 2009 and 2011, Nadia was often quite ill from celiac disease. She says that she was basically bedridden for two years. As she explained during our lengthy conversation the morning after my dinner experience, “I said to myself, ‘This can’t be! With my culinary heritage I have to learn an inclusive approach to food that’s respectful of the environment and respect of individuals while being gastronomic and delicious.’”

She began working with her mother in 2015, soon taking the reins of Reine’s kitchen. In 2017, Nadia herself was awarded the Michelin star for La Fenière. Reine stayed with her in the gastronomic restaurant for another year, at which point, as Nadia tells it, her mother said, “You’ve got do it alone now because you have your vision, your intentions, your recipes, and it’s important that you continue to convey them.”

Though celiac disease is a significant part of Nadia’s personal story and of the development of the culinary explorations that have given her much recognition, she would rather not have her cuisine labeled solely as gluten-free. People come for the experience, she says, not for their celiac problems. Of course, there’s often a table or two where someone will speak with her about their digestive issues because they know of her personal experience. She doesn’t mind. She’s had clients who arrive in culinary distress, worried about every little thing they might eat, and she aims to calm them down. “By the second dish,” she says, “they’ve relaxed and are simply happy to be having a good meal, and that sense of happiness extends to the rest.”

Had I not known in advance that the meal would be gluten-free I doubt that I would have noticed. Presented with the chestnut bread, I thought, hmm, chestnut bread—and it was delicious—and then chick-pea bread—that too—without wondering about the absence of gluten. (Nadia operates a mill for the various flours that she then uses in her breads and other flour-based products that are served in the restaurant and available in specialty stores.) Just as one doesn’t think when eating a good piece of fish that it doesn’t taste like beef, one simply enjoys the dish. (Omnivores, by the way, drawn in by the evolution of the meal and the discovery of each small dish, might not even notice that that none of the dishes contains meat.)

“I have no obligations in my cooking,” says Nadia. “First, I don’t cook traditionally because I can’t, so for me there’s an enormous field of permanent research on plants, on living things, on the way to present naturalness and simplicity.”

Asked about her relationship with traditional Provençale cuisine, Nadia claims a clear and present affinity with it, including the techniques that she learned in part from her mother. “Provence,” she says, “has developed its culinary techniques in relation to the products that were available to work with. Provençale cuisine is also that of economy. People paid attention to what went into their cuisine; they didn’t throw anything away. Provençale cuisine is very plant-based. It’s a distinct yet varied cuisine comprised of different smaller regions. People don’t eat the same way in Marseille or in the Camargue or here in the Luberon. Its diversity is quite beautiful and should be brought to light. Its recipes, its beautiful recipes, haven’t been extinguished, and they need to be created and recreated, transmitted from generation to generation. The heart is transmitted with them, that’s a beautiful part of the energy of life.”

Regenerative and holistic

I’d arrived on opening night, so to speak, June 9, 2021, the first evening that La Fenière was welcoming diners since its 2020 Covid closing and months of evening curfew. Dining out without watching the clock was new to all of us, a time of renewal, particularly for those who, like me, prefer a late or second seating in a restaurant.

Nadia uses the term régénérateur—regenerative, something that makes you feel replenished—in speaking of the environment that she set out to create at La Fenière. That environment extends beyond the gastronomic restaurant to include the bistro on the property, the lodging, the landscape, the service, the swimming pool, the kitchen garden, the occasional activities and workshops, and the overall atmosphere. She speaks of the importance of being “conscious” of oneself and one’s environment.

“What’s essential in my life and what I think I’m able to offer others is that sense of self-awareness. To do so requires being connected to both matter and nature. And I believe that the best way to let go is to feel good, to have a sense of trust in a place, to be conscious of where one is. All that is regenerative… I like that people feel good and, beyond feeling good, that there’s a kind of interaction with themselves.”

Nadia is generous enough with her time and spirit to interact with clients if they wish, even during the meal. As she put the finishing touches on dishes in a corner of the dining patio the evening of my visit, diners would occasionally get up to see what she was doing, to ask her questions, and Nadia willingly engaged with them. She came by each table twice to deliver and explain a dish.

My most frequent interaction that evening, however, was with Ernest Hung Do, the sommelier and maître d’, a gentle, knowing, kind presence throughout the meal. Ernest came to France from Vietnam as an infant, his family having fled the country in waves of refugees known as “boat people.” As a young man, he became particularly interested in fish and became a sushi master with his own restaurant. He was named best sushi master in France one year. In 2013, he sold his restaurant since he’d become increasingly interested in all things vegetal, a move from the sea to the earth. He met Nadia’s sister, a food journalist, in Marseille, and her sister said, “You and Nadia speak the same way about food, you should meet.” That was seven years ago. They have been together ever since, as companions and as business partners. “We truly work in synergy together,” says Nadia. I asked Ernest, given his background as a chef, why didn’t he want to work alongside Nadia in the kitchen? “Because I wanted to leave her with her vision in the kitchen while presenting her cuisine and wine to clients.” He does an excellent job of it. (He credits Nadia’s father as one of his mentors in learning about wine.)

“What I do, I believe, is goes beyond the dish,” says Nadia. “I like to lead people to ask themselves questions. When you start out with something that’s bland, you ask yourself ‘Why bland?’ But what’s bland is essential for digestion, it’s essential in silence, in calm. And then something rises up, for example on the shrimp. What especially interests me is that people feel and have sensations. Of course, the dish is a part of an overall experience, and it’s essential that everything about that dish be precise. Then once you have that precision you can talk about everything else. That’s where a meal goes beyond the dishes themselves.”

Each dish grabs attention for its finesse and balance. Following the aforementioned shrimp—it was a raw Mediterranean shrimp with a squid ink emulsion, with a squid ink “chip” that nearly struck me as enlightening as the verbena leaf—the fluidity and complex harmony of a cream of bitter lettuce with an oyster in a sourdough tempura was my favorite dish. After that, the rouille in a dish called “memory of a bouillabaisse” was a discovery in and of itself.

Here’s how Nadia describes her inspiration for the penultimate dish, chickpea ice cream served with a shot of rum: “When I opened that rum a few weeks ago—it’s a friend of mine who makes it, Guillaume Ferroni, in Aubagne [near Marseille], aged in casks sometimes from Rasteau and in this case from Beaumes de Venise—when I opened that rum I said to myself, “Ah, that’s it, that’s what I want to feel,” because even though I don’t drink alcohol, just smelling it made me feel something. I don’t want sugar in my cuisine because sugar releases dopamine, which is quite different than serotonin. I want to work with serotonin, what’s called the hormone of happiness, not the hormone of pleasure. Happiness is more intense; it’s a lot more timeless. It’s something that awakens the interior of our body, not just to make us say ‘Wow’ but to make us conscious, which is much greater.”

“Wow,” is what I also said to myself when I tried the chickpea ice cream and rum. A warm honey-and-chestnut madeleine then served as an endnote to the meal.

La Fenière, a living space

Nadia’s gastronomic restaurant is the centerpiece La Fenière but there are other aspects to the property as well. Above the restaurant, in the main building on the property, there are 12 bedrooms, created in 2017. Nadia plans to develop 30 more lodgings on the opposite end of the property in the form of ecolodges. There’s also a second restaurant on the property, a Mediterranean bistro called La Cour du Ferme. There’s a swimming pool. There are hiking paths. Small-group activities are sometimes organized, such as cooking workshop taught by Nadia on Saturday mornings. Yet I wouldn’t call La Fenière a resort. It’s homier than that. There’s no grand décor, no ostentation. More boutiquish, more palatial, more photogenic accommodations are found elsewhere in the Luberon. What then to call this place?

Nadia calls La Fenière a “lieu de vie” or living space, a place of “positive living, of regeneration and of inspiration,” where guests are invited to “participate in the world in which they wish to live.” That may sound too psychic or new-age for some travelers looking to explore the landscapes and villages of the Luberon, though having stated her goal, Nadia doesn’t demand or expect obedience. She would just like visitors to slow down and be conscious of their surroundings. Thus, the hotel has a two-night minimum.

To me, La Fenière is a cultured, unglamorous countryside estate with an earthy restaurant—an earthy restaurant with an exquisite, inventive, sophisticated, earth-and-seaworthy 160€ tasting menu, but an earthy restaurant nonetheless.

An olive tree stands at the center of the patio around which, weather permitting, the tables are set. A concert of frogs played nearby as I sat at one of them that evening. As their song softened, I became aware of the sound of a bees buzzing in the yard and of Ernest’s soft steps over the paving stones. Was it a form of shock from my fall or a form of denial that I may have fractured my ribs or broken my wrist? Whatever it was, that evening at La Fenière I was one happy, regenerated, conscious traveler.

La Fenière, D943, 84160 Cadenet 84160. Tel. +33 (0)4 90 68 11 79. A 2-night minimum is required at the hotel. The gastronomic restaurant is open only when Nadia is present. The bistro remains open even when she is not. Those staying at the hotel on a Friday evening should ask in advance if Nadia will be giving a cooking class on Saturday morning. Cooking classes are also open to those not staying at the hotel.

Near La Fenière in the southern Luberon: The château and village of Lourmarin; a shaded seat in a café or restaurant by the water basin at Cucuron; olive oil tasting at Bastide du Laval; Mérindol and the history of Waldensian (les Vaudois); the 12th-century Cisterian Silvacane Abbey at La Roque d’Anthéron; the garden conservatory for plants used for dying and coloring in Lauris. Tourist information about the village and the entire Luberon region of Provence can be obtained at the Lourmarin tourist office, Place Henri Barthélémy. The Luberon is in the Vaucluse department or sub-region of Provence. For more articles about Vaucluse see here.

A Video Culinary Conversation with Nadia Sammut

Nadia Sammut was one of my guests at a France Revisited Culinary Conversation with three chefs of the Vaucluse area of Provence, along with Jon Chiri and Hugues Marrec, on June 29, 2021. Nadia appears in the introductory portion of Part 1 and then again for nearly all of Part 2. I invite you to watch at least the first 10 minutes of Part 1 in order to situate Nadia in the region and among the three chefs that I selected for this culinary conversation before proceeding to Part 2, here:

© 2021, Gary Lee Kraut

The post Cuisine in Provence: Nadia Sammut at La Fenière, After the Fall appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

In this one-hour presentation, Gary Lee Kraut, editor of France Revisited, and guest expert Jean-Pierre Soutric, a consultant who advises luxury hotels in France on how to live up to the expectations of demanding and well-heeled travelers from around the world, take you to the southeast France to visit famous and historic hotels along the Riviera.

Part 1 of this luxury hotel series, examining the creation and evolution of luxury hotels in Paris from 1855 to 1909, i.e. from the era of Napoleon III though the Belle Epoque, can be viewed here.

Part 2, which examines the creation of luxury hotels from 1910 to today, can be viewed here.

Stay tuned for part 4, coming in the fall. Invitations to attend France Revisited conversations and presentations live are sent out through the France Revisited Newsletter. If you aren’t already a subscriber, you can sign up now to receive the France Revisited Newsletter.

Luxury on the Riviera: Starting time on video – Topics, towns, hotel

0:01:49 – Where is the Riviera?
0:03:43 – The origins of luxury on the Riviera
0:09:30 – Monaco: Hotel de Paris
0:16:14 – Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat: Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat and the Ephrussi de Rothschild Villa and Gardens
0:24:05 – Nice: The Negresco, coastal festivals and museums
0:29:23 – Antibes, Juan-les-Pins, Cap d’Antibes: Les Belles Rives, Jazz à Juan, Hôtel du Cap – Eden-Roc
0:44:18 – Cannes: The Carlton, The Martinez, The Majestic
0:50:34 – Saint Tropez: The Byblos, La Réserve Ramatuelle
0:55:08 – When is the best time to go to the Riviera?
0:58:55 – The Riviera, playground for the rich or destination for all?
1:00:24 – Should you use a travel agent to reserve at a luxury hotel?

© 2021. All rights reserved.

Jean-Pierre Soutric follows in the footsteps of three generations in the hotel industry. His great-grandmother opened a hotel in 1914, just before the outbreak of the First World War. Jean-Pierre has held marketing positions at leading hotel groups, including Four Seasons, with which he worked for 20 years. Passionate about history, culture, art and the evolution of French elegance and style through the centuries, he now works as a Paris-based luxury travel and hotel consultant advising luxury hotels in France on how to live up to the expectations of demanding and well-heeled travelers from around the world.

Gary Lee Kraut has been inspiring and informing travelers to France for three decades. His unparalleled experience as an editor, travel writer, journalist, lecturer, consultant and guide has made him one of the most trusted voices for English-speaking travelers, armchair travelers and travel professionals interested in France.

The post The History of Luxury Hotels on the Riviera (Video) appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

* * *

Relais & Châteaux… If those words mean nothing to you, it’s a safe bet that your travel budget and fantasies typically stops short of 5-star lodging. Relais & Châteaux, a grouping of individually owned hotels and restaurants, publishes a luxurious color catalog with drool-inducing cheesecake photos of its platinum-card fantasy resorts. It’s 815 pages of travel porn.

Today’s Relais & Châteaux spans the globe from A(rgentina) to Z(ambia), with 544 resort/restaurant “members.” Of course, all this glamor had to start somewhere and “somewhere” turns out to be roughly 80 miles south of Paris, in Loiret, a region on the eastern edge of the Loire Valley, at a quiet, family-run inn called the Auberge des Templiers.

Back in the 1940s, the French were just getting used to the concept of paid vacations. Naturally, everyone wanted to go south for their holiday, and the National 7 highway, linking Paris with the Riviera, took on a mythic allure, similar to that of Route 66 in the US.

In 1945 the grandmother of the present owner of the Auberge des Templiers opened her roadside family kitchen to hungry vacationers happy to hit the road in liberated France. Nine years later, what had become a prosperous inn joined seven other National 7 inns to form Relais de Campagne, an association dedicated to “calm, comfort and courtesy.” Their pilot group was federated under the Relais & Chateaux banner in 1975.

Of the original eight hotels, only the Auberge des Templiers still exists. Guillaume Dépée, the third generation to run the family business, occasionally finds it difficult to fit into the corporate mentality of the present-day R&C, a gold-plate logo that embraces wine tasting in Uruguay, Chinese spa treatments in Nanjing, and luxury safaris near Kenya’s Maasai Reserve.

“There’s an emphasis on global investment and celebrity chefs, which are areas where a small family hotel like mine simply can’t compete,” says Guillaume Dépée, whose restaurant nevertheless has one Michelin star. “I don’t do glitter; I do authenticity. I give people exactly what I want as a consumer and what my grandparents stood for: calm, comfort and courtesy.”

Calm and comfort? Oh yes! The Auberge is a woodsy haven with wisteria-bedecked terraces, 400-year-old trees and a large outdoor pool. The guestrooms are housed in delightfully eclectic buildings with thatched or gabled rooftops. No two are the same since each generation of the Dépée family makes its own additions. The present owner added an Esthederm spa for the summer 2017 season plus a poolside champagne bar with sushi snacks created by Chef Yoshihiko Miura.

Courtesy? Yes, that’s also there but it works both ways. “This is my family home and I don’t mind ejecting guests who are rude with the staff,” says Dépée, noting that a prized staff-member has worked at the hotel since his grandparents’ day. Unlike most hotel directors, Dépée lives on the premises, in the house where he grew up, sharing his digs with a stray cat who developed a penchant for Chef Miura’s sashimi.

While the chef hails from Japan (and has a coveted license-not-to-kill with fugu), he displays a Franco-French sensibility for dishes like savory crabmeat with avocado cream and delicate lamb chops accented with herbs straight from the hotel’s garden.

“We buy only from local suppliers who use no pesticides,” says Dépée. “We have our beehives for honey and I support local wine-makers. Just don’t expect tuna, strawberries in January or water in plastic bottles.”

In other words, you can dine at the Templiers without fretting too much about your carbon footprint.

“I totally support the Relais & Châteaux ecological initiatives spearheaded by [Brittany’s three-star chef] Olivier Roellinger. As members of the hospitality business, we are the ambassadors and guardians of the precious ecosystems that make our locations so attractive to others.”

The Auberge des Templiers is also surprisingly affordable, offering some economical mid-week packages and lunches – either in the restaurant or poolside.

The Auberge des Templiers may be removed from the block-buster chateaux of the Loire Valley but the World Heritage portion of the Loire Valley actually starts right nearby, with the castle at Sully sur Loire. A few miles from there is Saint Benoit sur Loire, notable for the extraordinary details and luminosity of the Romanesque basilica of Fleury Abbey. An excursion from the inn might also include a visit to Gien, famous for its earthenware (faience) and its International Hunting Museum and to Lorris for the Museum of the Resistance and Deportation.

Auberge des Templiers. Les Bézards, 45290 Boismorand. Tel: 02.38.31.80.81. Closed February 15 to March 10. The Auberge is a 75-minute train trip from Paris-Bercy to Nogent-sur-Vernisson. For those arriving for car-free R&R the hotel can arrange to meet guests at the station, a 10-minute drive from the inn.

(c) 2017, Corinne LaBalme

The post Auberge des Templiers: Where the Relais & Châteaux Dream Began appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

* * *

No casual tourist would describe Aix-en-Provence as a hotbed of the architectural avant-garde. From the terrace of Café des Deux Garçons, the Aix skyline looks just about like it did back when Paul Cézanne sipped his tisane with Emile Zola.

And yet the ultra-modern Sextius Mirabeau quarter, a showcase for Rudy Ricciotti, Kengo Kuma and some of the hottest 21st century design on the planet, is only a few blocks away. As one sips one’s pastis and looks around at the tawny-tinted 17th-18th century façades, the only question is “Where?”

Closer than you think

Like most 2000-year-old towns, Aix-en-Provence faced a severe space crunch in the mid-20th century. The population had exploded (from 30,000 in 1945 to 100,000 in 1975) and its summertime Lyric Festival, which started small and provincial in 1948, had gone global.

But unlike most 2000-year-old towns, Aix had a magic mushroom: 46 acres of friche—abandoned and under-used industrial land—that started right where the tree-lined Cours Mirabeau ended. City planners had coveted this terrain since the 1950s but given the multiple ownership couldn’t gain title to it.

Eventually, sorely-needed housing projects simply hop-scotched over the zone to new settlements west of the city, such as Jas de Bouffan, where the Fondation Vasarely broke ground in 1976. This left a void that started just west of the 19th-century Rotonde Fountain.

That’s not to say that nothing happened in this sector in the late 20th century. The Marseille autoroute bull-dozed through in the 60s, and a defunct match factory morphed into the Cité des Livres library complex in 1986. But the area wasn’t cleared for construction until negotiations were finalized over land held by the French railway company SNCF and the 1989 sale of the Thompson factory.

All these delays produced some happy results. The nastier brut abuse of the Pompidou era of the 1970s passed Aix by, and city planners had enough time to note that public opinion was against skyscrapers. Although the first set of plans had to be scrapped due the 1980s financial crisis, what emerged is all the more impressive.

Touring the new Aix

Head for the Napoleon III-era Fontaine de la Rotonde at the end of the Cours Mirabeau. It’s topped with three goddesses representing commerce, justice and the arts. One of those ladies, probably Miss Business, is staring hard at the brand-new, glass-walled Apple boutique that popped up last month. The gateway to New Aix is Les Allées Provençales, a series of sleek shopping and housing corridors (ca 2007) leading right across from Apple and the brand-new Tourist Office. Between Les Allees Provençales and the Grand Théâtre, you cross the Esplanade des Justes, inaugurated in March 2014.

The high architectural drama starts a few meters west at the Grand Théâtre de Provence, designed by Milan-based architect Vittorio Gregotti and inaugurated in 2007.

The choice of Gregotti as one the spirit guides for this new district is significant in itself. Gregotti is considered an anti-modernist of the Jane Jacobs/Robert Venturi ilk, believing that new architecture should harmonize with the existing urban context rather than make a stand-alone “statement” (e.g. Paris’s Tour Montparnasse).

Thus the curved, amphitheater-like entrance to the 1,366-seat building appears to nestle into its site, its stones carefully chosen to mimic the changing colors of Mont Sainte-Victoire. (Fact: The proximity of train tracks meant that the whole structure had to be mounted on springs.)

The rear of the theater, more linear but just as attractive, is visible from a high parvis (built above transit) that is home to two other 21st-century bijoux: the Centre Choréographique National d’Aix-en-Provence, nicknamed the Pavillon Noir, designed by Rudy Ricciotti (2006), and the comparatively virginal-looking, all-white Conservatoire Darius Milhaud (2013), signed Kengo Kuma.

Ricciotti, designer of Marseille’s drop-dead gorgeous MuCEM Museum (2013), used an angular, black concrete grid over sheets of glass for an effect that he has described as ”sado-maso” for the Aix Ballet’s home-base. It’s perfectly in line with the edgy work of Angelin Preljocaj, director of the Aix Ballet, famously quoted as saying “La création se fait dans le noir” (Creation takes place in the dark).

Next door, the angels (literally) sing in the Music Conservatory that Tokyo/Paris-based Kengo Kuma coated with shimmery, silver-white anodized aluminum that has been folded, origami-style, to create asymmetric zones of light and shadow. The concert hall, seating 500, is fashioned with wood-paneling in a similar origami treatment.

And below all this?

Remember the autoroute that was paved through the center of the neighborhood in the 1960s? Efforts have been made to beautify it as well. On one side on the tunnel, drivers see a vegetal wall developed by landscape artist Patrick Blanc in 2008. (Parisians know his work from vertical gardens at the Pershing Hall Hotel, the Quai Branly Museum and the BHV Homme store, among other places.) On the other side, yet to be completed, there will be a “water wall” (mur d’eau) commemorating Aix’s natural springs, designed by Christian Ghion.

Where to stay in the Sextius Mirabeau neighborhood?

This is a no-brainer. The glamorous, 5-star Mariott Renaissance opened right across from the Conservatory Darius Milhaud (Pavillon Blanc) in Feb 2014. Marseille architects Claude Sabon Nadjari and Rémy Saada drew up the plans which include a spa, a pool, and a gourmet Provençal restaurant that poached Aix’s top chef, Jean-Marc Banzo, from Le Clos de la Violette. The gastronomic restaurant (closed Sunday and Monday) serves dishes like grilled red mullet with zucchini spaghetti, calamars in squid ink and a reduced bouillabaisse sauce on its 90 € and 130 € prix fixe menus. (There’s also a bistro, open daily serving a 25 € lunch and a 39 € dinner.)

Christian Ghion designed the sleek furniture for the 133 guestrooms that are long on creature comforts: king-size beds, rain showers, AC, coffee/tea service, WiFi and iPod music chargers.

Even in a luxury hotel, however, you won’t get away from the fact that Aix, with 40,000 students, is youth-oriented. (There’s Gatorade right next to the Rémy Martin in the mini-bar.) To fit in better, book yourself a “face-modelling massage” at the spa or go directly to the bar and order the Renaissance cocktail (orange vodka, amaretto, lemon juice, ginger and sesame oil) and test its Phoenix effect.

Note that from many rooms like N° 18, you’ll have a great view of the Water Wall, which, when finished, will be the largest of its kind in Europe.

Marriott Renaissance Aix-en-Provence. 320 avenue Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 13100 Aix-en-Provence. Tel: 04.86.91.54.50.

Exterior Aix

Modern art doesn’t stop at the city limits. Forgo the all-too-familiar Cézanne route and check out the Fondation Vasarely, an Op Art palazzo presided over by Pierre Vasarely, grandson of the artist Victor Vasarely. It’s rare to be able to see this artist’s illusionistic work on a large scale… and ‘large’ for Vasarely was as tall as a two-story building. It’s a hike out of town, but the N° 2 bus takes you up to the doorstep.

Fondation Vasarely. Jas de Bouffan, 13690 Aix-en-Provence. Tel: 04 42 20 01 09. Closed Monday. Through September 2014, the museum showcases the work of Venezuelan op-artist Carlos Cruz-Diez.

Count on a half-hour drive due north to the Château La Coste and get an early start because it’s worth a day-long visit. Irish businessman/bio-dynamic wine entrepreneur Patrick McKillen has spiked his vineyards with works by a Who’s Who of contemporary artists.

Tadao Ando created the striking entry, Jean Nouvel designed the wine production area, and the surprises on the grounds include a Louise Bourgeois spider, a Calder stabile, a Frank Gehry music pavilion “rescued” from its Serpentine sojourn in London, Liam Gillick screens, a Druid-like subterranean vault by Andy Goldsworthy and Michael Stipe foxes… and that’s not all.

It takes at least three to four hours to see all the installations… and new ones are being built all the time. (Kengo Kuma, Ai Weiwei, Carsten Holler and Renzo Piano are on the coming attractions list.) Eventually, the owner plans to create a hotel.

In the meantime, there’s wine to drink and food to eat in two different restaurants. One—slightly more formal, overlooking a Hiroshi Sugimoto sculpture in a reflecting pool—serves quinoa tabbouleh and foie gras. The second—set in a village-like townscape which is actually where La Coste vineyard workers live—serves gazpacho and salads. Open daily. Call ahead for information about wine tastings and special evening events.

Château La Coste. 2750 Route de la Cride, 13610 Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade. Tel: 04 42 61 92 90.

© 2014, Corinne LaBalme

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* * *

In 1954 three Michelin stars landed on Les Baux de Provence, an isolated hilltop aerie 9 miles (15k) north of Arles. They fell specifically on Oustau de Baumanière, a hotel/restaurant nestled in the trees below the fortress. The personal automobile gave gourmets the means to get there by way of the winding road that snakes through dramatic white walls of rock leading to Les Baux, testament to the mining for bauxite, a mineral that took its name from the village. Offering magnificent glimpses of the Luberon, Mont Ventoux, the Rhône Valley and the local vineyards, the route alone makes for an exhilarating approach.

Michelin’s weren’t the town’s first stars. The first settlers claimed kinship to Balthazar, one of the three sky-gazing kings in the Christmas story. After that, the history of Les Baux falls into the ill-starred category befitting of a zone that would come to be called the Valley of Hell.  The most notable former residents include beautiful black widow Queen Jeanne, smothered to death by a jealous cousin, and evil Raymond of Turenne, who laughed as he pushed his enemies off the town’s vertiginous cliffs. In 1632, weary of policing a precinct that thrived on internal conflict and political chaos, Louis XIII’s right-hand man Richelieu ordered the ramparts to be razed while taxing the residents to finance the demolition.

The result of Richelieu’s meddling is a romantic ruin of a fortress, the stuff that postcards were invented for. All through the summer, the slim mountain access road is choked with tour buses, slowing traffic to a diesel-scented standstill.  Sightseers dream of parking places that may never materialize, making the ‘Valley of Hell’ appellation quite understandable. Yet, on a sunny day in October, we had to watch the dashboard to make sure we weren’t speeding. Off-season, the road is almost vacant.

Oustau de Baumanière, a 5-star hotel, is a sprawling ensemble cluster of buildings (14th, 16th and 18th centuries), tennis courts and heated swimming pools. Queen Elizabeth stayed in the main hotel in 1972. Her ex-suite, N° 2, has a working fireplace that wouldn’t be out of place in Buckingham Palace. The hotel still houses Les Baux’s premier restaurant (currently awarded two stars by Michelin).

But for sheer romance, nothing beats the portion of the complex called Le Manoir, an 18th century dream-house with its own private rose garden. Here, the suites are far bigger than necessary (of course, one doesn’t come here for the bare necessities). Room 15 has two ballroom-sized rooms and two rough-hewn marble bathrooms, one with an oval bath-tub and the other with giant walk-in rain shower. There are two stone fireplaces as well, along with excellent wifi, cable tv, minibars and coffee machines.

There’s no restaurant at the Manoir, a half-mile from the main building of the Oustau, so that means heading through the woods to the enclave’s two restaurants. At the two-starred Oustau, chef Sylvestre Wahid put together some major miracles like delicate scallop carpaccio layered with foie gras, stuffed rouget, agneau en croûte with a lush rosemary sauce, and a deconstructed lemon meringue pie. The 60,000-bottle cave has something for everyone, from a 2011 Cassis (30€) to 1961 Hermitage la Chapelle (9,000€).

A second restaurant is at Oustau’s sister 5-star hotel La Cabro d’Or (meaning The Golden Goat), a hotel that might hold special appeal to traveling (upscale) families with kids who would enjoy the proximity to a mini-farmyard with dwarf goats. Compared to the Oustau, Michel Hulin’s menu at La Cabro d’Or is less formal and easier on the high-end budget with a 56 € lunch that includes wine. The chef trained at Château Les Crayères in Reims and the Près d’Eugénie in Eugénie-les-Bains. Though La Cabro is starless in 2014, Mr. Hulin’s ultra-light crabmeat/crayfish salad with fresh brousse cheese is nearly addictive. Happily, the hotel has a little van that can scoot guests between locations because the property is big enough to get lost in. The Spa Baumanière is nearby.

So… ready to enjoy Les Baux without the crowds? When you make your reservations, just make sure the restaurants will be open if you don’t want to head into the village. The Oustau kitchen closes down in January while Sylvestre Wahid heads for Courcheval’s Le Strato, although the Cabro d’Or stays open except for Sunday and Monday. Needless to say, these are fine places in season as well.

Oustau de Baumanière. Chemin départemental 27 (route 27), 13520 Les Baux-de-Provence. Tel: 04 90 54 33 07.

La Cabro d’Or, Chemin départemental 27 (route 27), 13520 Les Baux-de-Provence. Tel. 04 90 54 33 21.

Bikes can be rented at both hotels. Two or four wheels will get you to plenty of olive oil producers and winegrowers in the surrounding area.

Both resorts are Relais & Chateaux members.

Official Les Baux-de-Provence tourist information site.

© 2014, Corinne LaBalme

The post Out-of-Seasonal Delights: Les Baux-de-Provence appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

Getting There

Avignon is 2:40 by direct train from Paris (Gare de Lyon) and is served by two train stations:

1. Avignon TGV. Most high-speed trains arrive here, four miles from the center of town. From the station there’s a light rail line that connects with Avignon Centre station in 6 minutes, making 35 round-trips per day. There’s also regular bus to/from the city walls. Take it to the final stop, “Avignon Poste,” about a 12-minute ride. Avignon Poste is actually just a hundred yards from the Avignon Centre station. The Popes’ Palace and the intra-muros hotels are within a 10-minute walk from there. Taxi service is also available from the station.

2.  Avignon Centre, across the street from the city walls. From here it’s easy enough to walk to any of the hotels intra-muros, though taxis are also available.

In summer, there’s a direct Eurostar to Avignon from St. Pancras as well as direct flights from Birmingham, London and Southhampton.

Having your own wheels—bike, car, a chauffeur—is naturally the best way to explore Provence, but on a brief visit with a limited radius one can do surprisingly well with public transportation.

Tourist Information

The official site of the Avignon Tourist Office is www.avignon-tourisme.com.

Avignon is capital of the department of Vaucluse, which lies east of the Rhone River and includes Orange, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Carpentras, Cavaillon, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Gordes, the Abbey of Senanque, many vineyards and lavender fields and much of the Luberon Natural Regional Park. The official site of the Vaucluse Tourist Office is provenceguide.com.

To the west of the Rhone River and easily accessible from Avignon are Villeneuve-lès-Avignon (just across the river) and the Pont du Gard, which are located in the department of Gard whose official tourist information site is tourismegard.com.

Avignon Theater Festival
During three weeks in July Avignon holds a major international theater festival, le Festival d’Avignon, with venues throughout the town, most prestigiously in the Court of Honor of the Popes’ Palace. Playing at Avignon during the festival signifies a major stamp of approval for a production, a director or a troupe, even if the best of the new productions presented here aren’t necessarily French. For more information see the official festival site.

Video intermission (33 seconds): A view from the edge of the Rock of Avignon overlooking the Rhone River and accompanied by the sound of cicadas.

Choice Accommodations in Avignon

La Mirande
4 place de l’Amirande. Tel. 04 90 14 20 20.

Situated in the shadow of the fortress wall of the Popes’ Palace, this former cardinal’s palace, transformed into a hotel by the Stern family in the early 1990s, provides Avignon’s most luxurious accommodations. The view from most of the rooms may be stopped short by that imposing wall but it is a view that’s long on history. The 26 rooms (sizes vary) of this 5-star boutique include 20 rooms in the older palace building decorated in 18th-century styles and 6 rooms that opened in 2012 in an adjacent building decorated with Empire-style furnishings. Handsome Zuber wallpaper provides an elegant touch throughout. Contributing to the hotel’s feeling of intimacy, an array of charming settings—in the garden, in the inner patio, in the “Red Room,” in the “Chinese Cabinet”—are available for tea, cocktails or an after-dinner drink.

The hotel’s restaurant (not tested for this article) has reportedly had its ups and downs in recent years, but the great dining pleasure of La Mirande is Jean-Claude Altmayer’s guest table in the basement (see #5 in this other article about Avignon). The hotel also offers cooking classes conducted by various chefs of the region.

Hotel d’Europe
12 place Crillon. Tel. 04 90 14 76 76

From its entrance off the square just within the old city ramparts, through the shade of the plane tree in the entry courtyard, into the aura of the ancient walls, past a peek into the large, expectant dining room, up the promise of the grand staircase and into the spaciousness of some of the rooms, the home that the Marquis of Graveson had built in 1580 certainly has the potential for a great hotel. In fact it became one when it opened to the public as the Hotel d’Europe in 1799. So the hotel can boast a fine guest list of celebrated men and women and statesmen that sojourned here over the next two centuries. But during a visit in December 2012 I found the hotel uneven in its physical offerings, green in its staff (admittedly, my site visit lasted less than 30 minutes) and the atmosphere generally lacking in spirit and fantasy. Its 39 double rooms and 5 suites alternate between worn traditional and overly classic renovated, an indication that, like the continent itself, the Europe in search of its soul. These are nevertheless spacious rooms from the “superior” category on up to the presidential suite. This is not to write off the Europe; the hotel’s current owners are apparently striving for more consistent elegance, and this is, after all, a 5-star hotel. The classic grand hotel dining room has a Michelin star in 2013 (not tested for this article).

Hotel de l’Horloge
1 rue Félicien David (corner with Place de l’Horloge). Tel. 04 90 16 42 00.

L’Horloge is a pleasing 4-star ideally set beside Place de l’Horloge, the town’s main square, just a few hundred yards from the Popes’ Palace. Its modest lobby signals a hotel with great pretensions as far service goes but in two stays here I’ve found the reception and cleaning staff friendly and willing to accommodate. The 66 rooms, mostly with bath, some only shower, offer square comfort with an easy décor in tones of brown and off-white. Various categories ensure that the hotel can satisfy a range of budgets and family-friendly accommodates, with attractive off-season prices available online.

Marie Touzet’s Villa de Margot
24 rue des Trois Colombes. Tel. 04 90 82 62 34.

Marie Touzet operates an attractive B&B with three rooms and two suites in an 1820 mansion within easy walking distance of the center of Avignon. The well-maintained rooms and suites of various comfortable sizes are decorated with a nod to various 19th- and early-20th-century styles and run 120-200€, including breakfast. The Suite Royale is a large family suite with a double bed and two single beds for children (supplement) and a terrace with a view at one edge of the Popes’ Palace. Private parking (10€/night) Dog alert: There’s a friendly little mutt named Easy roaming about. Open year-round.

© 2013, Gary Lee Kraut

For more on Avignon read Profiles in Provence: Passionate Purveyors of Fine Food and Drink.

For a glimpse of nearby Orange see Black Diva and the Roman Theater of Orange.

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* * *

An up-and-coming hotel group decides to make a move on a historic rural inn, expand the building, triple its number of rooms, install a spa and add a conference center. With a project like this, there’s a lot that can go amiss on the aesthetic side, but the Marseille-based Maranatha Group has pulled it off with panache.

The 4-star Moulin de Vernègues, whose foundations date to the 13th century, packs a whole Dan Brown mini-series into its stone walls. The Knights Templars slept here (a yet-undiscovered underground tunnel presumably leads to their fortress) and they may well have buried a secret treasure somewhere beneath the paving stones. PG-rated Good King René patronized the dining hall, but the family kept things kinky by marrying into the Marquis de Sade dynasty. Chartreuse monks brewed mysterious potions on the premises in the 17th century. Post-revolution, the building operated as a postal relay.

While the redecoration of the old house (which includes a private chapel) was not entirely finished when we visited in May, we liked everything we saw. The 13th-century fireplace and elaborately-painted ceiling beams mesh well with contemporary furniture in Provençal shades of almond, poppy, lilac and ochre.

The 34 rooms in this section of the hotel blend historically austere lines with fancy bathrooms and cable TV.

What’s more surprising is how well the modern extensions work. Architect Olivier Sabran has linked the old and new buildings with covered bridges and artfully harmonized the new construction materials with the old stonework. The spa (sauna, hammam, Jacuzzi plus massages and Occitan facial treatments) has been nestled into the former stables.

Those covered bridges add a labyrinth factor to navigating the hotel.  It’s easy to get lost betwixt the bedroom and the bar even before you have a drink. But if you do want a drink with dinner, the wine-list ranges from delightful Côteaux d’Aix en Provence from the Château de Calaron, 29€, to 1986 Cheval Blanc, 875€. The morning after, breakfast is large and lavish–don’t miss the house-made jams.

There’s more to Vernègues than tanning at the pool and hot-stone massages at the spa. Most visitors work off the calories at the adjoining Golf de Pont-Royal. (You can see the second hole from the dining room.) It’s a technical course designed by Seve Ballesteros. Bring your camera for the par 4 seventh hole, a dogleg with a spectacular view of the Alpilles and Lubéron hills.

A drawback for all this rural charm is that it’s about a 45-minute drive to Avignon, Arles or Aix-en-Provence, but that could also be seen as an advantage since it places visitors more or less equidistant from each of these towns as well as just 25 minutes from Cavaillon, home to a succulent melon.

Le Moulin de Vernègues, Route Domaine et Golf de Pont Royal, RN7, 13370 Mallemort, Bouches-du-Rhone. Tel. 04 90 59 12 00. Summer rates run 183-390€, slightly lower in other seasons plus other off-season packages.

© 2013, Corinne LaBalme

Corinne LaBalme, a Paris-based writer, journalist and editor, is currently developing a series of lifestyle documentaries for Muses Productions.

The post Resort Report: Medieval Meets Modern at Le Moulin de Vernègues in Provence appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

Hotel du Palais
Imperial Resort and Spa
1 avenue de l’Impératrice, 64200 Biarritz.
Tel. 05 59 41 64 00. Website.

You don’t need a 5-star budget in order to enjoy the pleasures of the French Basque coast, but if you’ve got one then there is only one place to use it: Biarritz’s Hotel de Palais, the classically luxurious, exceptionally situated and overall outstanding seaside palace.

The history of this hotel has been inseparable from that of Biarritz ever since 1854, when Emperor Napoleon III, gave his nod to the construction on this site of a summer palace, Villa Eugénie, named for his wife.

It was she, Eugénie de Montijo, born into Spanish aristocracy but raised mostly in France, who was so fond of Biarritz, having first visited at age 9, in 1835. (While Eugenia was particularly fond of Biarritz, Napoleon III had a warm spot for Vichy [see article http://francerevisited.com/2009/07/vichy-not-that-vichy-this-vichy/], as did his mistresses.)

The imperial couple’s visit to Biarritz in the summer of 1854 got them hooked on the beauty and warmth of the Basque coast, and Villa Eugénie was ready to receive them on their visit the following year. For the next 16 years, with the exception of 1860 and 1869, they sojourned, bringing with them a train of aristocracy—French, first, then from throughout Europe. “La reine des plages et la plage des rois,” Biarritz was called: The queen of beaches (beach resorts) and the beach (beach resort) of kings.

The crowned heads barely took pause with the Franco-Prussian war and the fall of the emperor, as Biarritz remained one of France’s most notable resorts during the Belle Epoque. It was a period that saw Villa Eugénie transformed into a hotel and casino. Russia’s grand dukes came for the season; Queen Victoria saw fit to visit and then so did Edward VII and many more. Much of the hotel-casino burned down in 1903, after which it was largely rebuilt as the luxury hotel seen today. You’ll see the initials NE around the hotel referring to Napoleon Emperor or, if you prefer, to Napoleon and Eugenia.

The Hotel du Palais has the particularity among France’s top crop of hotels of belonging to the City of Biarritz and of nevertheless being well managed, apparently, by a semi-public (mixed economy) company. The rooms are of classic luxury with pretty little contemporary touches.

The hotel has a pool, a fine restaurant, bar, direct access to the beach and a spa. A fine place from which to enjoy a moody sunset.

The spa (Guerlain products) covers five floors and is brightly lit by natural sunlight. In addition to the pool and other amenities to which clients have free access, the spa offers soins that are “cocooning, personal and intimate” along with a Leonor Greyl hair institute.

Café de Paris
5 place Bellevue, 64200 Biarritz.
Tel. 05 59 24 19 53. Café de Paris is part of the HMC group of hotels and resorts. Website.

This sweet and sober 4-star boutique hotel with an easy-going décor of gray, white and splashes of color is ideally situated at the crux of the Grande Plage, with a remarkable view from all 19 rooms of the length of the beach and out to the lighthouse. A short walk in other directions leads to covered food market, the old ports and the promenade over the rocks. The hotel itself has a worthwhile restaurant.

Hotel Windsor
Grande Plage, 64200 Biarritz.
Tel. 05 59 24 08 52. Website.

The Hotel Windsor, owned and operated by the Heguy family since 1948, is also a 4-star. It’s a notch less notable than the Café de Paris but also a notch less expensive. Half of its 48 rooms overlook the crowds of the beach (la Grande Plage). The rooms are simply decorated—bright white walls and furnishing, striped bed covers, dark wood floors; pleasant if not exuberant. There are some nice rooms on the courtyard and others on the side with a sliver of a beach or ocean view, but of course the full frontal view is preferable. There are a few reasonably priced family rooms for those traveling with young children.

Edouard VII
21 avenue Carnot, 64200 Biarritz. Tel. 05 59 22 39 80. Website.

With 18 rooms housed in a 19th-century mansion, this family-operated 3-star hotel feels like a large B&B: cozy, a touch of charm, a nice place from which to feel at home in the city and to chat up other guests. The Edouard VII isn’t as close to the beach as the others mentioned here, but it’s only a short walk (about 350 yards) to the Plage de la Côte des Basques, Biarritz’s longer and less citified beach. Another way of looking at it is that when staying here you can reach either beach on a short walk, and the covered food market, which is the center of local life in the morning, is just 200 yards away.

Room size increases slightly from one category to the next though the more noticeable difference is the increase in bed width—140 cm/55 in., 160 cm/63 in., 180 cm/71 in. There’s a fourth category: a family room suitable if traveling with small children. In the warmer seasons breakfast can be served on the terrace.

Mercure Plaza
10 avenue Edouard VII, 64200 Biarritz. Tel. 0559247400. Website.

A handsome, 69-room, 3-star chain hotel with an admirable Art Deco heart, the Mercure Plaza is well set just a block off the beach, across the street from the casino and a fine place from which to set out on a promenade in any direction.

When to visit: A visitor naturally wants warm weather and warm (at least not cold) water when visiting Biarritz, and that naturally means visiting from mid-spring to mid-autumn. Nevertheless, Biarritz is a worthwhile off-season destination, when you may well luck upon some warmish sunny days between October and March. Furthermore, as with all seaside resorts, off-season pricing can be up to half that of the high season.

© 2013, Gary Lee Kraut

For more on Biarritz on France Revisited read: Biarritz Ocean: The Brand Between Bilbao and Bordeaux and Biarritz: The Surfing Lesson.

Official site of the Biarritz Tourist Office: http://tourisme.biarritz.fr/en

Getting to Biarritz: There are direct flights to Biarritz from Paris and other French cities as well as from various northern European capitals (London, Dublin, Copenhagen, Brussels, Rotterdam, Stockholm). By train, Biarritz is 5:20 from Paris and 2:00 from Bordeaux.

The post Biarritz Hotels: Hotel du Palais, Café de Paris, Windsor, Edouard VII, Mercure Plaza appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

Seven miles northwest of Colmar, in one of the small, colorful tourist-friendly towns along the Alsace wine route, Olivier Nasti works with his wife, his brother and his sister-in-law to operate the 4-star hotel Le Chambard and four food businesses that conjugate Alsace’s past, present, and even some present perfect: a gastronomic restaurant (1-star Michelin since 2005  – [post note: Le Chambard received its second Michelin star in 2014]), a traditional Alsatian bistro Le Winstub du Chambard, a contemporary take on a flammekuche or tarte flambée, and a bright kougelhof pastry shop/tearoom.

Before describing each of these ventures, I note that it’s quite possible to visit Kaysersberg (pop. 3000) without getting involved in any of this Nasti business. I might have asked the local tourist office to supply summer photos with sunny skies, leafy vineyards, geranium boxes overflowing at the windows of half-timbered houses, and naked knees moving down cobbled streets.

But I’ll use my own shots from a visit in February on a day without snow to decorate the town. If you can see the charm beyond the grey of my own views you can well imagine a sweet stroll along by this stream,

… and a pleasant little hike up to the castle ruin,

… for a rewarding view over the old town

… and out to the vineyards.

A museum celebrates the life, humanitarian mission and Nobel Prize of Dr. Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965), who was born in Kaysersberg. A small cemetery contains the graves of French soldiers from WWII, including conscripts from French colonies at the time.

A plaque indicates the role of the 3rd Infantry Division of the U.S. Army in liberating the town on Dec. 18, 1944.

The ubercharming and proudly kitsch village of Riquewihr is three miles north of Kaysersberg along the wine route. Another three miles beyond that is the handsome town of Ribeauvillé. For those without a car (and unwilling to bike) to explore the wine route of Alsace, Kaysersberg is reachable from Colmar by public bus (from various stops, including the train station) in about 25 minutes or by taxi in 15 minutes. Riquewihr and Ribeauvillé are then also within easy reached by bus.

Though not a January-March destination in any book, the trade-off of no sun for no crowds is often in a traveler’s favor.

Nasti family ventures

While Olivier Nasti is chef and primary face of these ventures and is clearly in charge, he is seconded in these ventures by his brother Emmanuel, who orchestrates the dining room and the wine list at the gastronomic restaurant at Le Chambard. Olivier’s wife Patricia focuses on the hotel and the winstub, Emmanuel’s wife Corinne oversees the reception, and Corinne’s brother Olivier Lammert manages the Nasti off-shoot concept restaurant Flamme & Co. Originally from Belfort, 50 miles south of Kaysersberg, the Nastis took over Le Chambard in 2000.

Hotel Le Chambard

The 32 rooms and suites at Le Chambard are warm and sleek, without an Alsatian knickknack in sight. They’re housed in an 18th-century main building and add-ons in the back. A small spa with sauna, steam, Jacuzzi and pool is open 8am-7pm. Massage and well-being treatments are available by appointment.

Restaurant Le Chambard

Olivier Nasti’s technical mastery in the kitchen and the freshness of his supplies were evident in an evening-long succession of courses including, in order, smoked eel, snails, scallops, cod, pigeon and foie gras. That mastery earned him the title Meilleur Ouvrier de France in 2007. The MOF competition largely honors chefs with great technical skill, in working the fresh products of course. Olivier Nasti’s cuisine is natural, fluid and balanced, most evident to me that evening in his scallops with truffles and Jerusalem artichoke.

His is a clarified Alsatian cuisine, delicate without trying to be too subtle. This isn’t a cuisine of fantasy or innovation but rather a clear-headed cooking built on a foundation of regional products and dishes. The foie gras baeckoffa, for example, is light and distinct in its taste while remaining within the canons of that regional stew.

Service, led by Olivier’s brother Emmanuel, was kind if rough on the edges. Emmanuel Nasti’s extensive wine list can be seen here. A wine-paired meal allows visitors to take a wide tour of the Alsace wine region, naturally including growers in the surrounding vineyards.

Count 84-124€ per person plus beverages.

Le Winstub du Chambard

A winstub is an Alsatian bistro traditionally serving local dishes and local wines. Fronting Le Chambard, Olivier Nasti’s winstub holds strictly to tradition with red-and-white checked tablecloths, green-stemmed wine glasses, wooden chairs with curved pierced backs, and kougelho(p)f molds (shaped like a deep bundt pan) and Alsatian earthenware on the shelves,…

…, a setting for regional offerings from snails to onion pies to foie gras, from pikeperch to choucroute and fish, from choucroute and sausage to baeckeoffa (a pork and/or lamb stew and potato stew), from munster cheese to kougelhopf glacé, and from muscat to riesling to sylvaner to gewurztraminer.

Le Winstub du Chambard is classic and moderately priced, a fine slice of regional tradition, one of many such restaurants that a traveler encounters in the region.

Flamme & Co.

Flammekueche (flammekuche) or tarte flambée is an Alsatian pizza of sorts that’s traditionally made with very thin bread dough baked in a rectangle topped with fresh cheese/cream, bacon bits and lightly fried onions. Additional cream mixes and toppings are possible but the lion’s share of flammekueche is speckled with bacon and onions.

Enter Flamme & Co. This isn’t the only flammekueche restaurant to offer varieties on the traditional theme, but it is fully dedicated to expanding the concept of what a flammekueche can be.

There’s a Flamme & Co across the street from Le Chambard, however I tested at its urban outlet in the center of Strasbourg the following day. It’s operated by Emmanuel Nasti’s brother-in-law Olivier Lammert.

The flammekueche variations are quickly baked here in a beech-and-oak-burning oven. My tasting companion, a Paris-based food writer, and I tried most of the menu through the afternoon in a meal that served as both lunch and dinner. Among the many we tried: bacon, snails and parsley; scallops, cream of cauliflower and lamb’s lettuce; sliced duck breast and marmalade; herbs, parmesan and Spanish ham, and others.

I referred to flammekeuches above as Alsatian pizza, as anyone would, but they might also be considered Alsatian crepes considering that sweet as well as savory flammekueche’s are available here. For me, the Strasbourg Flamme & Co, unlike the Kaysersberg outlet, was trying too hard to be young and trendy; put another way I felt too old for the lighting and music and looky-here paper placemats, though the design of the place is appealing enough. I nevertheless enjoyed the goods themselves; the toppings were fresh and authentic enough—and far be it from the editor of France Revisited to be opposed to Alsace revisited.

Kouglof un curieux pâtissier

As with any quaint Alsatian town there’s an abundance of pastry shops in Kaysersberg. Kouglof, a pastry shop/tea room, is another Nasti venture, again an attempt to update traditional fare without losing sight of the traditions at its heart. In this case the tradition is that of Alsace’s most recognizable pastry the kougelho(p)f or kouglof, a brioche with raisins and nuts baked in a particular round mold.

© 2012 Gary Lee Kraut

Kaysersberg Tourist Office, 39 rue du Général de Gaulle, at the center of the old town. The tourist office can provide a list of vineyards and wine cellars in town and in the surrounding area.

Riquewihr and Ribeauvillé have a joint tourist information website.

Le Chambard, hotel and restaurant. 9 rue du Général de Gaulle, 68240 Kaysersberg. Tel. 03 89 37 10 17. Le Winstub du Chambard is at the same address. Le Chambard is a member of the Chateaux & Hotels Collection association.

Flamme & Co. 53/55 Grand’rue, 67000 Strasbourg (as well as across the street from Le Chambard in Kaysersberg). Tel. 03 90 40 19 45. Closed Monday.

Kouglof un curieux pâtissier, 50 rue du Général de Gaulle, 68240 Kaysersberg.

Nasti News. General information about the various Nasti ventures.

Côté Cour Côté Four. 11 rue des Serruriers, 6800 Colmar. Tel. 03 89 21 19 18. In 2012, the Nasti brothers extended their reach into Colmar by taking over Côté Cour Côté Four, a brasserie to one side, a bakery to the other.

Official Alsace tourist information website.

Also read Just a Glimpse: Colmar.

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I would soon learn that the cereal plain (wheat, colza, barley, rye) is indeed part and parcel of Auvergne. The current owners of the hotel, the Monier family, were formerly in the flour business. After nine generations as millers (Monier is a transformation of meunier, meaning miller) they sold the business to a large competitor and entered the hotel business with the purchase Chateau La Canière.

The term “chateau” covers a wide range of large residences in France and La Canière belongs more to the mansion than the castle portion of that spectrum, but like any respectable chateau it’s reached at the end of a long tree-lined alley.

Replacing a previous structure on this site, the chateau was built in the 1880s to showcase the instruments, portraits and library of the chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794) that had been inherited by a member of the Bérard de Chazelles family, and presumably to hold elegant parties. Lavoisier is considered the father of modern chemistry and credited with naming oxygen and hydrogen and developing various theories about air, combustion and other matters that I started forgetting soon after taking the Chemistry AP exam in 12th grade.

To support his passion for scientific research, Lavoisier had a job in Paris with the tax farming office known as the fermier général in pre-Revolutionary France. His research and analysis made him famous, but having “worked for the man” noted on your resumé tends to get noticed in times of revolution. Lavoisier tried to keep his head low during the Revolution, but was nevertheless sent to the guillotine during the Terror along with his fellow tax farmers. In response to attempts to save his head for its scientific smarts, a member of the revolutionary tribunal is said to have declared, “The Republic doesn’t need scientists” (La République n’a pas besoin de savants).

Chateau La Canière fell into disrepair after the last owner of the Bérard de Chazelles family was arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 for her role in the Resistance and deported to Ravensbruk in 1944. Purchased by a Dutch group in 2006 and rehabilitated as a hotel and restaurant, the the project had barely taken off when the group sold it in 2010 to the Monier family. The Moniers have now upgraded La Canière to its current 5-star status.

La Canière is not as heavily staffed as a city 5-star, so employees are necessarily at your immediate beck and call. Nevertheless, the infrastructure of well-being is present. A gastronomic restaurant called Lavoisier occupies an outbuilding (to the right, above) that is partially a remnant, vastly transformed, of the chateau that preceded the current mansion. A 17th-century orangerie (citrus greenhouse) is found on the opposite side of the chateau. There’s also a swimming pool (open summer only) in the back. In addition to some handsome wood-paneled reception rooms, including one that serves as the breakfast room, the mansion/chateau has a chapel and, more interestingly, a cozy library where one can read, write and/or drink, day or night.

La Canière is now operated by two brothers, Pierre, 24, and André, 28, whose grandfather, Denys, who bears the title “manager,” can be seen puttering around the place. That sounds like a great set-up for a British sitcom, but the French are better at chateau-hotels than at sitcoms.

There are 26 rooms and suites of high comfort. Prices run 130-600€ depending on size, split into six categories, making the hotel accessible for moderate as well as higher budgets. The ground-floor rooms are spacious and wheelchair accessible, though I preferred the upper rooms, particularly the “traditional” rooms that recall (with mostly contemporary furniture) the style of what would have been the heyday of the private chateau here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. My own airy room on the top floor had more contemporary character—lively carpet, its ceiling beams and its bathroom partially open to the room—and a clear view over the surrounding cereal fields. Craning my neck to the south I could see a milky view of the mountainous region of the Volcano Park and the peak of Puy de Dome visible on the horizon.

The Lavoisier collection was sold in 1925, including a famous portrait by Jacques-Louis David of the scientist and his wife, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. If I continue to speak of Lavoisier here it’s because he can’t be ignored. A copy of that portrait can be seen at La Canière along with other portraits of the chemist, reproduced ad nauseam throughout the hotel. Lavoisier is everywhere. The restaurant is named after him. Portraits, nearly always the same, line hallways and overlook beds. I was reminded of what Oscar Wilde, referring the wallpaper in his rundown hotel room in Paris, said as he lay dying, “One or the other of us has to go.”

Nevertheless, there were nice things to stay for.

Over a fine dinner in the hotel’s gastronomic restaurant, Pierre Monier, the young director, informed me that his family had actually removed a number of the Lavoisier portraits since purchasing the property and that I might only have been overwhelmed by those that remain because, unlike other clients, I took a complete tour of the hotel and its hallways. Most guests would only see a few. Be that as it may, and without suggesting that a traveler not come this way because of an overdose of Lavoisiers, they might consider removing a few more.

The pool, the restaurant, the lounge areas, the breakfast room, the atrium lobby, the library, the nearly 20 acres of lawn and wood, and the wifi undoubtedly make La Canière an attractive place to relax, reflect and romance or for a work retreat.

Château La Canière is about 10 miles from the hot springs/spa town of Chatel-Guyon by way of the Riom region. Though Riom is larger than Chatel-Guyon, it’s lesser known beyond the region. The director of the Riom tourist office was kind enough to meet me at the hotel to tell me about the treasures of the area such as the Renaissance buildings in the center of Riom and the cute neighboring villages of Mozac and Marsat.

As we shook hands to part I promised her that I would consider getting up at 6am to have a quick look at those Renaissance buildings and cute villages before heading into the volcanic landscape, but after a drink in the library, then a late dinner in the restaurant, then a long gaze up at the stars from my bedroom window, I looked long into Lavoisier’s eyes above my bed and admitted to myself that I had lied.

Château la Canière. Rue de la Croix Blanche, 63260 Thuret. Tel. 04 73 97 98 44. Member of Chateaux & Hotels Collection. The hotel is 2 miles outside the center of the village of Thuret. The Riom train station is 9 miles away.

Riom Tourist Office. 27 place de la Fédération, 63200 Riom. Tel. 04 73 38 59 45.

© 2012, Gary Lee Kraut (text and photos)

Continue to:
Part V: Mont Dore, Saint Nectaire, Chaudes-Aigues and Yu.
Or return to:
Part I: From Paris to Clermont-Ferrand
Part II: An Introduction to Spa Towns and Hot Springs By Way of Royat
Part III: Chatel-Guyon

The post 5 Days in Auvergne, Part IV: Château La Canière, a Luxury Hotel appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.