Château de l'Abbaye

The hosts clearly care about this place and work hard. The rooms were superb and well equipped, and ours had a private sunny garden and a whirlpool bath, though the listing on booking.com made it sound as if the bath would be hot. The decor has an eccentric, slightly faded chic, but the hotel itself was clean. We ate both breakfast and dinner. The food was simple and elegant, with excellent ingredients and a touch of real skill in the cooking. Staying here was a lovely break in the middle of our month driving around France. It's remote, but the hotel was busy, probably because it works well as a stop on a trip like ours. I'd recommend trying dinner. A few of the negative reviews have a point about the rules. Charging €10 to open a bottle of wine I'd brought to drink in the expensive room I was paying a premium for felt silly. The warnings about €5 or €100 charges for putting smelly food in the minibar fridge also seemed over the top. Seeing that sort of commentary first could make you think you'd landed in Fawlty Towers and spoil the impression of an otherwise lovely hotel.

The rooms and shared areas felt run-down to me, and the pool was small and dirty. There also seemed to be very little nearby, so I'd suggest staying somewhere closer to places of interest. For €49 per person, dinner was nothing special, and the list of costly extras was long. Read the bad reviews before booking, especially if you might not be comfortable with the strict rules and an unfriendly, self-righteous host. Some guests may have better luck, but that wasn't something I wanted to gamble on. For the prices here, I expected much better service, friendliness, and rooms. I travel a lot, and even €79 would feel like the upper limit for what was offered. It costs three to five times that, and I'd still rather have the simplicity and cleanliness of an Eco Ibis hotel. I also wonder how it ended up in the Les Collectioneurs hotel book, which usually has a good selection.

For €205 a night, our suite was ugly and dirty, the furniture was cheap and broken, and there was no hot water. It had none of the Chateau or Abbaye feeling we expected, and was the ugliest, most styleless hotel room we've ever booked. The homepage promised something completely different. The only small bright spot was the list of charges for breaking things or leaving the room dirty, displayed in a gold frame. The owners' behavior was the worst part. They were unfriendly and sarcastic, and lied to our faces about prices. When we arrived, the owner's wife was arguing with other guests at reception. The same thing happened the next day, so at least we weren't the only ones having problems.

The pool was nice, and we tried to make the best of our two nights there. Once we left, we found REAL Chateaus with beautiful rooms for less than half what we'd paid here. Our suite cost 210 Euro a night, and the homepage had looked amazing, but the stay turned into a nightmare. The place didn't feel like a Chateau or Abbaye, and the suite was dirty. There was brown water in the toilet and spider webs on the walls. We couldn't close the bathroom door or ANY of the doors. We travel a lot and had never had an experience like this. The pictures say it all. I tried to explain our disappointment to the owner, a middle aged Lady. She wasn't in the mood to listen. She laughed and rolled her eyes, then said, "You are free to go. But you paied already, so..." and laughed again. At one point she got so loud and aggressiv that other guests tried to calm her down. One men whispered to me, "It's not her friendly week." She also said we should be glad her husband (The Chef) wasn't there, because he wouldn't stay this friendly.