On a three-day trip to Provence, my best friend, Sara, and I stayed at Domaine de Fontenille, one part luxury estate, one part winery, all parts exquisite.
Sara and I met in grad school. I live in NYC, she lives in Dubai. We just happened to have to be in London for weddings, so we decided to make this impromptu trip since we see each other so infrequently. We looked at a bunch of different places, but the appeal of drinking rose and checking out beautiful towns in southern France seemed great to us. We narrowed down the choices quickly and settled on Domaine de Fontenille. Small luxury hotel? Check! Winery on property? Check! Spa? Check! Pool? Check!
Since we already were spending lots on other parts of European holidays and we've traveled together before, we settled on the least expensive room on property- Le Petit Chambre. Le petit chambre is a guest house outside of the large estate house, nestled in the gardens with its own pond and yard. We were waiting to see if the pictures were going to do this place justice.
After we landed at Marseilles airport and got in our rental car, we headed straight for the Luberon Valley and Domaine de Fontenille. As we approached the entrance, we felt like we were entering some sort of royal residence. The hotel was warm, knowledgeable, and gave us a tour of the grounds. They offered to take our luggage and we obliged. Little did we know, the woman at the front desk went and retrieved all of our luggage and put it directly on her back to our petit chambre. The room was warm and cozy, elegant, and had a pond with frogs. Since I booked through Mr. and Mrs. Smith, we also had a beautiful bottle of rose waiting for us.
Fontenille has two beautiul restaurants- La Cuisine d'Amélie and Le Champ des Lunes. Le Champ des Lunes has one Michelin star. While we both enjoy great food, we were looking for something more casual. We ate at La Cuisine d'Amélie and the food was so refined and beautiful, I cannot imagine what Champ des Lunes was like.
We visited the wine estate at Domaine de Fontenille after we had visited other domaines in the area. From what we saw, Domaine de Fontenille is at the higher echelon of wineries in the area. The tasting experience was more in line with what we experience in the States. After a long day of wine tasting, we ordered a beautiful charcuterie and cheese platter, which we enjoyed with some of our purchases from the Domaine.
The concierge did an exquisite job with setting us up with a driver for a day to take us to the perched villages and recommend restaurants for dinner in other towns nearby.
Our visit was almost perfect, except I do have a few regrets:
We went in early May and while this is typically a wonderful time of year, it was unseasonably cold, so we could not enjoy the pool and some of the other facilities. The Domaine did have blankets so you could enjoy wine outside while looking at the gardens; however, it was cold in our room and we didn't know how to work the heater since all the instructions were in French and we were too stubborn to call the front desk. (cue: dumb Americans). If we would go a little later (June), we would have also been able to see the vineyards growing and maybe get an insta-perfect picture with lavender.
We didn't plan enough time for our trip overall, so I would have loved to spend more time at the Domaine. We would have loved having the time to do a massage or enjoy more of the facilities offerings.
I wish I would have brought a larger suitcase to fit more rose from the Domaine.
Overall, a beautiful stay! If you have a huge group and a lot of money, renting a villa could be quite nice, but the comfort and the beauty of Domaine de Fontenille cannot be equaled. There is a reason why it is part of smaller luxury hotels of the world.
#whereiskatienow #instatravels #luxuryhotel #boutiquehotel #domainedefontenille #leadinghotelsoftheworld #winetasting #girlstrip #smallluxuryhotelsoftheworld #wineries #chateau
Comments