‘Comfortable, calming but not overtly opulent’
Jane Knight checks in at Les Sources de Cheverny, a chic new addition to the hotel scene of the Loire
There’s something more than a little déjà vu about this spa with its barrel bath, honey and wine wraps, and grape therapies. After a massage with vine flower oil, I decant myself into the spring-water pool beneath a beamed gabled roof surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows.
Two decades ago, I enjoyed similar treatments, wallowed in a barrel bath for the first time, and swam in a more opulent incarnation of a similar pool. That was more than 250 miles away near Bordeaux, surrounded by the ancient vines of the Château Smith Haut Lafitte vineyard. Here in the Loire Valley, I’m gazing instead at fecund forest views.
I’m getting a first look at Les Sources de Cheverny, the more hip, rustic and wilder baby sister of the palace spa hotel Les Sources de Caudalie, whose 1999 opening under Alice and Jérôme Tourbier brought with it vinotherapy – treatments using grape extracts rich in polyphenols (Alice’s sister, Mathilde, developed the Caudalie grape-based skincare range). So it’s no surprise to see some similarities in the properties, both designed by the architect Yves Collet, and sharing basic DNA that incorporates gastronomy, nature and spa. And don’t forget the wine.
“We’d been looking for another hotel in a wine region,” said Alice, adding that the gap between sibling properties resulted from a decade spent working on a hotel near Versailles as well as exploring a possibility in Champagne that didn’t work out. “It made sense to open in the Loire with its natural attractions and châteaux, especially as the area is becoming much more dynamic.”
It certainly is. New life is blowing the dust off this historical region. Many of the area’s Renaissance châteaux now offer tours with tablets as a guide, owners of smaller properties increasingly give personal tours, and a new generation of places to stay is popping up, led by the 2018 opening of the Relais de Chambord, with front-row views of the eponymous château.
Among these, Les Sources de Cheverny’s village-style hotel is designed to appeal to a clientele for whom luxury is less about traditional opulence and more about getting back to nature, wellness and sharing quality family time. Set in the Sologne region, thick with forests and marshes that for centuries were hunting grounds for the kings of France, it references the woody surrounds everywhere.
Decor comes in soft shades of green, perhaps with a leaf-motif here, a mosscoloured rug there, and activities include walking through the acres of woodland with a naturalist to learn about edible plants and herbs.
Even the entrance to the spa, a modern wood building tacked on to the original 18th-century Château de Breuil, incorporates enormous leafy murals, and the 80ft outdoor pool has a green lining, giving it the look of a natural pond. Wellness won’t just be confined to the seven treatment rooms here: there will be a series of retreats incorporating tai chi and meditation.
Meanwhile, yoga classes are held in one of the most magnificent yoga studios I have ever seen, located in the château’s distinctive sitting room with its parquet floor, chandelier and huge fabric wall panels.
The château is home to 13 of the 49 rooms, including mine, its palette of green furnishings accented by the wooden desk and cute bedside tables sourced by Alice from local flea markets. It’s calming and comfortable rather than overtly opulent.
Like many of the rooms, scattered among old farm buildings and superb wooden Scandi-inspired suites, it can accommodate children. If you’re there for romance, however, the place to book is the signature suite in a wooded cabin with its own barrel bath in the lake, which opens later this month. It’s not far from the gourmet restaurant, which won’t be open until spring.
Frankly, though, given the standard of the informal auberge, they don’t need a gourmet restaurant. In a huge gable-roofed stone room with timber beams and tiled floors, Frédéric Calmels, who previously worked at La Reserve hotel in Paris, cooks up a storm. Meat is grilled on an open fire – and my, the lamb sausage with harissaflavoured aubergine is good, after a delicious melon and pesto starter (leave room for the chocolate mousse).
With the food, the forest and the spa, you could easily enjoy a stay without hitting a single château. But that would be a shame as a clutch of big Cs are
You could enjoy a stay without hitting a single château, but that would be a shame
nearby – Chambord, Chenonceau and Chaumont are all within a 40-minute drive. Better still, grab one of the hotel’s bikes and pedal for 15 minutes through vineyard-lined lanes to the Château de Cheverny, immortalised in Herge’s Tintin books as Marlinspike Hall. Even closer is the tiny Château de Troussay, an architectural patchwork of details inspired by larger châteaux and restored by the 19th-century Loire historian Louis de La Saussaye.
A 30-minute ride along the Loire cycle routes, all clearly marked and using cycle paths or quiet roads, took me to the Château de Beauregard, with its incredible 85ft portrait gallery hung with 327 images. After another 45 minutes of pedalling through the forest I reached the Royal Château of Blois.
Back in Cheverny, feeling I’d earned some liquid refreshment, I paid €6 (£5.50) at the Maison de Vins to taste seven of 93 local wines in automated dispensers. (You can also stop at vineyards along the cycle routes). So I was perhaps a little wobbly in the saddle when I returned to the hotel to soak it all up with Frédéric’s excellent cuisine.
There is wine here, too, of course. One corner of the restaurant is a bar, its shelves stocked with Loire wines plus one interloper – Château Smith Haut Lafitte from Bordeaux. The local stuff is excellent, though, especially the hotel’s house wine, made from the romorantin grape, unique to the CourCheverny appellation.
The local vigneron who produces it is planting vines on Les Sources de Cheverny’s land, just outside the forest – so they will soon be producing their own La Grand’ Vigne wine (a name shared with Les Sources de Caudalie’s two-Michelin-star restaurant).
Will other hotels be added to the bunch, I wonder. “We will look again in Champagne,” said Alice, “and we plan to have something in Burgundy and Provence.” Frankly, I can’t wait.