Château le Thil at Les Sources de Caudalie
Chemin de Smith Haut Lafitte, Bordeaux-Martillac, France; chateau-le-thil.com. Eleven rooms from $345 (€240), includes breakfast.
Fine food, better wine, a sense that life must be enjoyed, not just lived, are a few of the seductive charms that lure so many of us to France. Tucked among the vineyards in Bordeaux’s Pessac-Léognan region is an 18th-century mansion that invites you to live the good life without the guilt. Château le Thil has been restored and is now fully open to the public for the first time in centuries. This five-star stopover lets you transform from harried traveller to serene lord of the manor in no time at all.
LOCATION, LOCATION
A 20-minute drive from the city of Bordeaux, Château le Thil is the B&B option to the boutique hotel and spa Les Sources de Caudalie and offers a completely different, more pastoral experience to the established spa hotel. Built in 1737 as a summer escape for a rich and powerful merchant family of Bordeaux, this neighbouring estate was bought by Les Sources de Caudalie’s owners three years ago, and they have painstakingly restored and redecorated each of its 11 rooms. Stay here and the renowned Château Smith Haut Lafitte winery is a short walk away for tours, tastings and secret wine-cellar discoveries. While there’s much to see during the busy fall harvest season, staying at the château (instead of the main property) means you can leave all the busyness behind to luxuriate in the grand style of a good aristocrat.
DESIGN
Two things help make Château le Thil feel like home: a warm, long-lost-family greeting from staff when you arrive and the easygoing, rustic-chic decor. Each of the nine bedrooms and two suites has been furnished with the help of co-owner Alice Tourbier’s keen eye for the antique shops of Paris and Bordeaux (there isn’t a piece you wouldn’t kill for to have in your own home). Walk the wide, wooden plank floors, admire restored chandeliers and Second Empire design as you escape into one of several comfortable, stylish common rooms with a book or puzzle. Some rooms contain ensuite baths or feature standalone tubs tucked behind king-size beds, where tall windows allow for long soaks overlooking eight hectares of landscaped grounds.
IF I COULD CHANGE ONE THING
The bucolic setting can make Château le Thil hard to find. After the third roundabout off the highway, the trail of discreet signs I was following disappeared and I was suddenly, frustratingly, lost. It was pretty, but vineyards start to look the same after a while.
EAT IN OR EAT OUT
A hearty country breakfast is served under the cathedral ceiling in the dining room, where, if you haven’t rented out all 11-rooms with your group, you’ll sup with Château Le Thil’s other guests, B&B-style. For dinner, “eat out” at the hotel’s award-winning restaurants, La Grand’Vigne for truly refined cuisine from chef Nicolas Masse (mains from €42, or $60 Canadian), or classic bistro fare at the cheerful La Table du Lavoir (prix fixe from €34). It’s only 1.5 kilometres – a short walk or cycle (no golf carts here!) – through landscaped grounds and vineyards to the main hotel property, which is a great way to embrace that French paradox balance.
WHOM YOU’LL MEET
The French don’t go gaga over celebrity and the hotel is discreet about past guests, but flip through the visitors book in the winery and you’ll find that Johnny Depp and then-partner Vanessa Paradis were here, while other Hollywood faces include Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. Make an appointment at the Vinothérapie Spa (the original Caudalie spa) and who knows whom you’ll spot chilling out by the warm mineral baths.
BEST AMENITY
The Caudalie soaps and lotions in the bathroom are luscious and the subtle attentions of the château’s own concierge are remarkable, but the best amenity is the intangible feeling that you’ve become lord or lady of the manor. Just push open the French doors and gaze out over the terrace at the swans in the pond – you’ve been pampered with such dignity that it feels as if you were born to this life, or at least should have been.
The writer was a guest of the hotel.