Perpetually ranked as one of many world’s hottest locations, France sees 90 million guests every year who come to revel within the nation’s wealthy tradition, historical past, and culinary delights. With dreamy accommodations showcasing the French artwork de vivre, the hospitality expertise is an simple a part of the attract.
In search of a sun-kissed Provençal escape? A culinary retreat within the Loire Valley? A history-drenched hideaway in Versailles? A palatial stunner on the Riviera? You’ll discover these standout institutions and extra on this curated record of the 15 finest accommodations in France—a part of our Resorts We Love sequence of one of the best accommodations and resorts of 2023. These accommodations span various geographical areas, together with the Riviera, Alps, Champagne, Provence, and Lyon.
In no specific order, listed below are our picks for the 15 finest accommodations in France.
1. Airelles Château de Versailles, Le Grand Contrôle
- Location: Versailles
- Why we find it irresistible: Unique entry to France’s legendary palace
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Hundreds of thousands of annual guests flock to the Chateau de Versailles, however what number of get to sleep on the area itself? Launched in 2021, Airelles Château de Versailles, Le Grand Contrôle occupies a Seventeenth-century constructing that after housed Louis XIV’s finance minister. A serious restoration didn’t simply polish the parquet. It additionally recreated a royal realm based mostly on archival analysis: the Royal Manufacture de Limoges designed tableware based mostly on Louis XV’s plates, artisans crafted replicas of Marie Antoinette’s chandeliers, and Maison Pierre Frey reproduced the unique wallpaper.
The Michelin-starred restaurant continues the immersion in regal splendor. Alain Ducasse orchestrated “the King’s Feast” with pageantry, as waiters in interval costume serve a parade of conventional dishes based mostly on Louis XIV’s favorites. The 13 visitor rooms and suites are embellished with four-poster beds, marble fireplaces, and museum-worthy antiques. Airelles gives an array of unique experiences, from guided horseback using excursions by way of the Versailles gardens to the “Marie Antoinette” day full with pampering on the Valmont Spa. Don’t miss the after-hours tour of the palace.
2. The Maybourne Riviera
- Location: Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, Côte d’Azur
- Why we find it irresistible: Sky-high Mediterranean views and excellent eating
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Unveiled in 2021, the Maybourne Lodge Group’s first French resort made a splash within the French Riviera, a area already identified for its legendary accommodations. A cliff-side location near 1,000 ft above Roquebrune-Cap-Martin gives panoramic views of Monte Carlo, the Mediterranean, and the shoreline curving into Italy. From each vantage level—the glass-enclosed eating places, the infinity pool loungers, suite terraces—the visible montage is on full show.
Maybourne tapped French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte to remodel a vacant property right into a seductive modernist hangout crammed with head-turning art work—together with the foyer’s gleaming sculpture of two intertwined folks by Louise Bourgeois suspended from the ceiling. The 69 visitor rooms and suites are accomplished up in a recent type—the suites characteristic furnished terraces that appear to drift between the ocean and sky. The pièce de résistance is the Michelin-starred Ceto restaurant, overseen by chef Mauro Colagreco of Mirazur fame. An ode to the ocean in its decor and delicacies, Ceto champions sustainable fishing. The marine theme continues in the summertime Ceto bar, the place cocktails just like the Circe (made with dulce seaweed, beetroot, and bourbon) take their names from Greek mythology. New in 2023: The resort unveiled a seasonal seaside membership in Cap Martin.
3. Hôtel du Palais
- Location: Biarritz, Basque Nation
- Why we find it irresistible: Imperial historical past on the solely Palace resort on the Atlantic coast
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On the Atlantic coast close to the Spanish border, Biarritz is a beguiling mixture of glamour and chill surfer vibes. This ambiance is embodied within the Hôtel du Palais, a landmark on the Grande Plage that’s intricately linked to its setting. The resort was initially constructed within the mid Nineteenth-century as an imperial villa for Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie, who remodeled the seaside city into a modern resort frequented by monarchs and exiled Russian aristocrats. The Villa Eugénie later grew to become a luxurious resort, and to at the present time, the beau monde maintain court docket at this luxurious seaside tackle.
A part of the Unbound Assortment by Hyatt, this Palace-classified resort accomplished a four-year renovation in 2021, restoring not solely the facade and slate roof but in addition the interval furnishings, tapestries, and signature blue carpet—adorned with Napoleon III’s imperial bees—on the grand staircase and hallways connecting the 86 rooms and 56 suites. The chandelier alone (weighing 904 kilos) within the Bar Napoléon III required some 250 hours of restoration work.
Chef Aurélien Largeau, who has labored with a few of France’s best cooks together with Christopher Coutanceau and Christophe Hay, sources components from native fishermen and Basque producers to craft the Michelin-starred menu (John Dory served with lemon confit and periwinkles, cage-caught lobster roasted on pine needles). Notable accoutrements embrace a heated out of doors pool with direct seaside entry and a sprawling, five-level spa with a counter-current pool and Guerlain remedies. When the waves are glassy, the resort can set you up with surf classes.
4. The Carlton, a Regent Lodge
- Location: Cannes, French Riviera
- Why we find it irresistible: Belle Époque glamour
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The Carlton is an element and parcel of the historical past of Cannes. The cream-colored confection—its twin domes mentioned to be impressed by a well-known courtesan’s breasts—was the primary luxurious resort to open in 1913, successfully making Cannes a summer season seaside vacation spot. Through the years, the star-studded visitor record has included Hollywood’s crème de la crème, beginning with Grace Kelly and Cary Grant when Alfred Hitchcock filmed To Catch a Thief, and to at the present time, it hosts the jury of the distinguished Cannes Movie Pageant.
Reopened in 2023 after a restoration challenge that lasted 5 years, the 332-room resort is making waves anew on La Croisette. There are two new wings, a Mediterranean backyard, an infinity pool, a convention middle, and the C Membership Health and Spa, which options town’s first boxing ring. Designer Tristan Auer recruited the best French craftspeople to buff, polish, and restore the gold leaf, chandeliers, and acres of marble. When it’s worthwhile to recharge, there’s no higher vantage level to admire the Massive Blue than the love seats in entrance of the French home windows (72 rooms have sea views).
5. Les Fermes de Marie
- Location: Megève, French Alps
- Why we find it irresistible: Authenticity and Alpine stylish
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The Alpine city of Megève has had a status for luxurious for the reason that Nineteen Twenties, when Baroness de Rothschild customary it as a ski resort to rival Switzerland’s St. Moritz. However what makes Les Fermes de Marie stand out right here is its intimate, family-style hospitality. The family-run Maisons & Resorts Sibuet hospitality firm, which has its roots the French Alps, rescued quite a few at-risk high-altitude farms, dismantling them within the mountain pastures and reassembling them as a hamlet on a four-acre property in Megève. Opened in 1989, Les Fermes de Marie is a celebration of heritage that channels the fairy-tale ambiance for which Megève is thought: horse-drawn carriages, cobblestone streets, conventional Savoyard homes.
There’s a deep sense of place right here, mirrored within the design: heat woods, fur throws on fireplace leather-based couches, weavings on the partitions. A few of the 70 visitor rooms have terraces for admiring the snow-capped peaks. When it comes time for après-ski, the Pure Altitude Spa gives ofuro baths, an out of doors sauna, and a birch tree–lined leisure room, whereas the Pure Altitude product line harnesses the pure antioxidant powers of mountain crops corresponding to edelweiss. Notice that Maisons Sibuet additionally gives a group of luxurious chalets within the space that include five-star Fermes de Marie resort companies, together with day by day breakfasts, afternoon snacks, concierge companies, and housekeeping.
6. InterContinental Lyon – Hôtel-Dieu
- Location: Lyon
- Why we find it irresistible: The rebirth of a heritage website on the Rhône
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A outstanding historic landmark in central Lyon bought a brand new lease on life when it was reborn because the InterContinental in 2019. Positioned on the Presqu’île on the confluence of the Rhône and Saône rivers, the Grand Hôtel-Dieu had operated as a hospital for eight centuries earlier than the premises had been vacated in 2010. The constructing is important to locals—an estimated one in three Lyonnais alive as we speak had been born right here.
The challenge required 5 years and a complete of 800 staff to remodel the Hôtel-Dieu right into a neighborhood hub with eating places, boutiques, and the Cité Internationale de la Gastronomie museum. The transformation included the addition of the 144-room resort, its interiors designed by Jean-Philippe Nuel, identified for his work turning heritage websites into accommodations (e.g., the Molitor in Paris). The up to date decor displays town’s historical past; for instance, the silk accents are a nod to the historic silk weaving business. Duplex Suites include huge, 20-foot home windows that body views of the Rhône River.
Linger over a drink at Le Dôme, a bar housed below the hovering vaulted ceilings of the constructing’s former chapel. The Panthéon cocktail, made with St.-Germain liqueur, vodka, white tea, and a house-made champagne syrup, pays homage to Jacques-Germain Soufflot, the architect who designed each the Paris landmark and the Hôtel Dieu’s 18th-century facade.
7. Royal Champagne
- Location: Épernay, Champagne
- Why we find it irresistible: Winery views on the area’s first wellness retreat
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When the Royal Champagne first opened in summer season 2018 amid the area’s UNESCO-listed vineyards, it was the primary wellness-focused vacation spot retreat in champagne nation. The 16,000-square-foot wellness middle is outfitted with two swimming swimming pools, Jacuzzis, and coverings by cult manufacturers Biologique Recherche and Kos Paris. (Candle therapeutic massage, anybody?)
The setting is steeped in historical past: This was the location of a training inn the place the kings of France used to in a single day when touring to their coronations on the Reims cathedral; within the Nineteenth century, Napoleon continuously stayed right here. Constructed right into a hillside, the Royal Champagne incorporates the historic property into the up to date resort, which contains a sequence of landscaped terraces. The endless vine views will also be appreciated out of your non-public terrace (every of the 47 visitor rooms has one). The decor by in-demand designer Sybille de Margerie (related to the Taittinger Champagne household) references Napoleon in bumble bee emblems and the gold leaf ceiling in Le Royal, the Michelin-starred restaurant.
Small particulars take hospitality to the following degree right here: One contact of the in-room “Champagne Please” button and also you’ll have a bottle delivered to your room. There’s additionally a Champagne Chauffeur who can organize non-public cellar visits in champagne homes that aren’t normally open to the general public, and e-bikes obtainable for a spin by way of the vineyards.
8. Tuba Membership
- Location: Marseille
- Why we find it irresistible: A cool hangout on the Mediterranean
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Tuba Membership is the place to eat, drink, swim, and sleep in Marseille’s Les Goudes, a picturesque fishing village on the western fringe of the Calanques Nationwide Park. And that’s precisely the purpose: Co-owners Greg Gassa and Fabrice Denizot say they created it with social gatherings in thoughts. Previously a free-diving college frequented by famous French diver Jacques Mayol within the Nineteen Eighties, Tuba Membership consists of 5 cabins, a three-suite guesthouse, and a restaurant, all sitting instantly on the Mediterranean Sea. The resort revives the seaside hut vibe à la Corbusier with fresco work painted by Emmanuelle Luciani and a retro design scheme from inside designer Marion Mailaender.
Views apart, the massive draw for locals is the meals: rising culinary stars Sylvain Roucayrol and Paul-Henri Bayart work wonders with seafood on the restaurant. (Get the crimson tuna tartare and don’t skip the Provençal cookies and mascarpone ice cream for dessert.) Equally scrumptious is the menu of Mediterranean snacks on the terrace bar, Le Bikini. When visitors aren’t eating or consuming, they’re seemingly luxuriating on yellow-and-white striped loungers on the water’s edge, or benefiting from such out of doors actions as boating (with a Tuba-prepared picnic basket for snacks), paddleboarding, canoeing, climbing by way of the Calanques, or mountaineering.
9. Lily of the Valley
- Location: Saint-Tropez
- Why we find it irresistible: Wellness at simply the proper take away from the glitz
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The primary property from father-daughter hoteliers Alain and Lucie Weill, which opened in 2019, is in contrast to every other within the space. A 20-minute drive from the guts of Saint-Tropez, Lily of the Valley is a perfect spot for individuals who need to really feel barely faraway from the glitz and extra embedded in nature. The Philippe Starck–designed hilltop hideaway sits on the finish of a winding non-public drive in La Croix-Valmer on the southern nook of the coast, identified for its dramatic headlands and footpaths. Beneath it sits the Plage de Gigaro, a secluded three-mile stretch of sand that visitors can entry on foot, with the resort’s complimentary shuttle, or on one among its electrical bikes.
There are 38 visitor rooms, 6 suites with non-public terraces or gardens, 8 pool suites with each a big non-public backyard and pool, and an enormous villa that sleeps 6. All lodging jut out over the Mediterranean.
One of many retreat’s defining options is its well being and wellness programming, with retreats that vary from 4 to 21 days. The half-acre wellness complicated has its personal 80-foot pool, glossy health rooms for TRX and Pilates, superior Biologique Recherche facial remedies, Ayurveda massages overseen by an award-winning masseur, and a plant-based restaurant. Visitors even have entry to in-residence sports activities coaches and dietitians who tailor packages for particular person targets. Bonus: That is one among few properties in Saint-Tropez to stay open year-round.
10. Primard
- Location: Eure-et-Loir
- Why we find it irresistible: A restorative retreat 20 minutes from Giverny
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Beforehand the property of French actress Catherine Deneuve for practically 30 years, this bucolic 100-acre property an hour by prepare from Paris is the form of nature escape vacationers come to France to expertise. Positioned lower than 20 minutes by automobile from Monet’s home in Giverny, Primard is one among only some properties close to the well-known website that pulls greater than 500,000 guests a yr.
The hoteliers of Les Domaines de Fontenille, Guillaume Foucher and Frédéric Biousse, remodeled the 18th- century directoire-era non-public residence right into a five-star resort, full with grounds showcasing rose gardens with than 200 varieties, wild meadows, boxwood topiaries, and a prairie with Highland cows, sheep, and wild birds. A sturdy permaculture backyard provides the produce for 2 on-site eating places, whereas a greenhouse is about up as a tea salon for visitors.
There’s a picture-perfect out of doors pool, a Susanna Kaufmann spa, and loads of actions to profit from the environment, from canoeing to gardening workshops. However the largest draw is Les Chemins, the one-star Michelin restaurant from chef Romain Meder who earned consideration as Alain Ducasse’s protegé at his now-closed triple Michelin-starred restaurant on the Plaza Athénée in Paris. Right here, with a vibrant plant-forward tasting menu constructed upon a basis of greens, grains, and fruit, Meder demonstrates how nourishing and ingenious a plant-forward high quality eating expertise will be (fish and a few shellfish make appearances).
11. Hôtel Crillon le Courageous
- Location: Crillon-le-Courageous/Vaucluse
- Why we find it irresistible: A style of village life in a classy pied-à-terre
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This hideaway within the foothills of the Mont Ventoux in Provence is greater than an idyllic getaway. It goals to attach vacationers to the guts of the picturesque Seventeenth-century village it’s named after, Crillon-le-Courageous. The resort is made up of 9 interlocking stone homes enveloped in aromatic climbing crops, they usually’re related by intimate squares and cobblestone alleyways. The 17 rooms, 17 suites, and personal home had been designed by Tunisian architect Charles Zana with a Provençal taste and a residential really feel: terra-cotta tiles, uncovered wood beams, vintage furnishings, embroidered throw pillows and curtains, and a delicate coloration palette.
There isn’t a mediocre view from any visitor room, restaurant (there are two on-site eating choices), or pool lounger: The Vaucluse’s vineyards and olive groves under are omnipresent. When visitors aren’t off strolling the footpaths beneath the village, biking Mont Ventoux, or enjoyable by the pool, they could benefit from the Tata Harper spa, which occupies the property’s former 18th-century vaulted stables.
12. Fleur de Loire
- Location: Blois (Loire Valley)
- Why we find it irresistible: A chef-driven culinary expertise
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There are accommodations with vacation spot eating places and iconic cooks after which there are vacation spot eating places that occur to have rooms. Fleur de Loire is a labor of affection from chef Christophe Hay on the Loire River that falls someplace in between. Following his time at La Maison d’à Côté, the award-winning restaurant and inn he ran for eight years in close by Montlivault, he aimed larger, taking up this 54,000-square-foot former hospice from the Seventeenth century, erected on the behest of Louis XIII’s brother, Gaston d’Orléans. Hay turned it into each the brand new residence for his high quality eating restaurant in addition to a Relais & Châteaux resort & spa.
The gastronomically centered resort gives 44 rooms and suites, plus 2 multicourse eating places and a pastry store, that use produce from his 2.5-acre permaculture backyard about close to the property. A Sisley spa options an indoor and out of doors pool. Environmental issues transcend limiting waste and dealing with native components: The resort runs on a closed water cooling system that doesn’t require contact with the air. Reservoirs for rainwater permit workers to water the backyard whereas the power for the constructing is sourced completely from wind energy. Within the visitor rooms, facilities come from a neighborhood soapmaker, the Savonnerie des Muids, whose merchandise are composed of oils, vinegars, and honey from the Loire (they’re offered in refillable containers). Wooden used for furnishings all through the property was drawn from licensed sustainable forestry operations.
The design scheme, dreamed up by the architect and decorator Caroline Tissier, masterfully evokes the serenity of the river. She made liberal use of wooden, brass, and stone and performed up a delicate aquatic-gold coloration palette in widespread areas and eating places. Rooms characteristic carpets and linens in sandy tones and nature-inspired customized wallpapers—ideally suited spots to relaxation after a memorable meal.
13. Domaine des Etangs, Auberge Resorts Assortment
- Location: Massignac
- Why we find it irresistible: Whole immersion in nature
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As soon as the holiday residence for the late French billionaire Didier Primat, this property with a restored Thirteenth-century citadel was taken over by his daughter Garance and overhauled into an unlimited nature-focused retreat in the identical spirit as Primland, her resort in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. The property, on 2,471 acres of wooded parkland, combines a working farm, a sculpture park with a dozen artworks, a gallery for artwork exhibitions, Gallo-Roman–impressed thermal baths, connoisseur restaurant Les Dyades, and five-star lodging.
There are seven suites within the citadel and farmhouse, in addition to six non-public residences unfold out throughout the property, every with one to 5 bedrooms. Whereas it’s tempting to spend the whole lot of a keep outdoor, the citadel’s widespread areas beckon. The sport room has a billiards desk and trunks filled with toys, board video games, and costumes for kids. For extra grownup pursuits, there’s a comfortable library constructed for lingering and a cigar room. All through the resort are works by European artists Hans Peter Feldmann, Thomas Ruff, and Henri Matisse and such scientific objects as astronomical devices and celestial globes—largely from Garance’s private assortment.
14. La Bastide de Gordes
- Location: Gordes
- Why we find it irresistible: An opulent journey again in time
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The France-based Airelles assortment of accommodations is thought for dreaming up prestigious properties in historic locations; this one within the historic hilltop city of Gordes within the Luberon is amongst its most iconic. Right here, 18th-century Provence lives on—actually. It’s woven into the decor, which is filled with vintage furnishings and equipment sourced from close by L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue markets and ancestral portraits and floral wallpaper. Employees put on both earth-toned culottes and vests with straw hats or floral bodices and flowy beige skirts.
On the resort’s sprawling terrace, a showstopping swimming pool—simply probably the most spectacular resort swimming pools in France—is surrounded by dry stone partitions and century-old olive and cypress timber, which makes every lap really feel downright cinematic. (Adults might be completely satisfied to know there’s a separate small pool for kids and one other pool within the spa.) Eating is taken simply as significantly as wellness, with seven on-site restaurant choices. The resort is a five-minute stroll from the primary a part of city, which incorporates an outpost of Jean-François Piège’s well-liked Parisian restaurant Clover.
15. Les Sources de Cheverny
- Location: Cheverny (Loire Valley)
- Why we find it irresistible: Wine-infused spa remedies in nature
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After the success of the spa-hotel Les Sources de Caudalie close to Bordeaux comes an equally spectacular addition to the Loire Valley from Alice Tourbier (whose sister based the French skincare model Caudalie) and her husband. Set round a restored 18th-century manor home, the property encompasses 110 acres of farmland and vines with visitor rooms unfold out amongst stone homes, transformed barns, and wood cabins with lake views.
There’s lots for visitors to do on the grounds, from biking and horseback using to benefiting from Caudalie’s signature wine-infused remedies within the spa. Off-property excursions embrace visits to Chambord in addition to the Château de Cheverny, biking itineraries alongside the Loire à Vélo’s greater than 500 miles of motorcycle paths, and winetasting. However no go to is full with no meal at Le Favori, the resort’s gastronomic restaurant that earned a Michelin star for chef Frédéric Calmel’s seasonal ode to the Loire Valley terroir.
