Château de la Dame Blanche

The room suited us perfectly for the night, and the surroundings were really lovely, with lots of attention to detail. When we arrived, our envelope was ready with clear instructions. We'd happily come back and recommend the place to others.

The dinner was a leisurely 2.5 hours, so plan for a long meal. The food was good and inventive, with two choices for each course and plenty of amuse-bouches between them. Portions were generous, and you won't leave hungry, so go easy on the bread. My husband called his meringue with different sorbets dessert “sensational”. The room was lovely too, and the restaurant had a Michelin-star-style feel.

We had a comfortable bed in the Prestige Room, but the open washing and shower area was badly and impractically designed, with too many faults to list. Restaurant service was dreadful: three hours for two courses. The food quality was poor and didn't deserve three cross forks in Michelin. I do want to credit the wine waiter, the only person on the team who seemed enthusiastic about his work.

I've never stayed in a hotel with a worse quality-to-price ratio. I planned to work in the area and booked two nights at Chateau de la Dame Blanche as a splurge after reading reviews and looking at the website. The grounds are lovely, and the first impression was very positive. The restaurant is excellent and worth visiting on its own. It was expensive, but I felt dinner was worth the price: the food was beautifully prepared, and the restaurant staff were professional and accommodating. Bravo. The rooms didn't come close to that standard. In the first room, at €180 a night, the toilet was so cramped that my knees hit the door, even though I'm 175 cm tall. The bathroom was tiny, the shower bracket was broken, and there was no hot water. The second room also had a broken shower bracket, no TV, and Wi-Fi so weak it kept dropping and was practically useless. The lights leading to the building didn't work. There was no coffee or tea maker in the room, and you had to buy a cup at reception. They only served American coffee, with milk if you asked, not cappuccino, café crème or espresso. At breakfast, they offered a day-old newspaper. The toiletries were like what you'd get at Ibis: low-quality soap and a tiny bottle of industrial-quality shampoo that I could barely tolerate as body wash. For two to three times the average hotel rate in the area, I expected a certain level of quality. They seem to host a lot of weddings, and I can see how that might work: the place is superficially impressive, but there's little behind the appearance. For a four-hour event, guests blinded by love might not notice. They don't seem to care enough to give guests a truly memorable experience. Fine, but then they shouldn't charge two to three times the going rate. I travel a lot and have stayed everywhere from a Motel 8 to the Ritz in Paris. What feels like good value depends on the price. Apart from dinner, I didn't get the quality their prices call for.