Domaine des Andéols

We had a wonderful soirée last night under the canopy of the tree house with friends. The setting is superb - service attentive and friendly and the food delicious. My husband and I live close by and we arrived on foot the other side of the domaine - staff happily gave us a ride in a golf cart which was a special way to arrive at the restaurant! Additionally, we misunderstood one of the menu items and so the chef sent us out a little extra to try, when we realised our mistake! I thoroughly recommend that you book a table - we attended the Thursday night Spritz and nibbles event at Le Platane.

It’s the attention to detail that gets you noticed, but the lack of attention that gets noticed more. Three night stay in a “Nature” suite was pleasant enough but not exactly fabulous, unless maybe home is a city centre apartment somewhere. Patio garden overgrown, housekeeping distinctly lacking on amenity replenishment and, in keeping with many modern hotels today, motion sensor lighting that is more of a hinderance than a help. Overall staff were quite friendly but not exactly efficient, booking for a hairdresser took over an hour with no result. Two minutes on Google and a phone call later, done. Finally the restaurant. Unfortunately, my wife was ill for a few days (not due to the hotel I stress) so we did not get to try much, but the final dinner in the rather eclectic restaurant setting saw a single langoustine of shrimp proportions (at Euro 38) and duck that had to be returned as too tough to even cut. Overall very poor standard, which could also be said of breakfast. Standard motel fare I’m afraid. A shame, could be so much better.

The 32 hectares domaine is an oasis of tranquility and joyful sounds of singing birds. A beautiful landscape garden surrounds the 11 independant villa’s, some with their own swimming pool, 8 ‘suites nature’ and 3 design swimming pools. And around this scenary are planted cypress trees, vineyards, fruit and olive trees, lavender and vegetables and herbs. It can be seen that the owner Olivier Massart, born in this place, is an art director who still has one of the most important world wide event management companies ‘La Mode on Images’. He shaped the fashion business in the late fifties, beginning sixties, and works since then with the most important fashion designers. The interiors of the villa’s, suites and the two restaurants are very fashionably furnished, with paintings on the walls and other objects of art. We stayed in one of those villa’s called Amis with an memorable shower. All mirrors against the walls with a glass ceiling(!) But the rest of the villa is also glamerous and very spacy with a large four-poster bed. The food in both restaurants is very good. One is of them ‘La Loggia’ is Michelin worthy. The other one is called ‘Le Platane’ because of the immense multicentennial plane tree which itself is excessible for lunch or dinner. Under it is a lovely terras where you als can enjoy the lovely food also for lunch or dinner overlooking the park. Breakfast is extensive with everything you wish for. The service is very friendly. To go short, this is an exceptional place to stay in many ways.