Chateau living

France is a magnificent country, at least to my taste. I love the countryside, the mentality, the l’art de vivre and of course the food and wine.
Travelling in France is like reading a book with many different chapters, especially when you are going by car. Each landscape differentiates from the other and there are many great things to see and visit along the way.
In the last years famous cultural sites became more and more popular also for hotels to create a unique experience directly at a historical venue.


Like the Chateau de Chambord, situated in the left bank of the Cosson river in the beautiful Loire Valley. This immense chateau build built to serve as a hunting lodge for Francis I,
Was given at one time to Maurice, Count of Saxony, who imported many animals and also architectural inventions from Sachsen, Germany to France.
The chateau is surrounded by a beautiful park and immense forest that used to be a popular hunting site for the aristocratic society and is now UNESCO heritage.

Relais de Chambord

You can be as close as it gets when booking a stay at the Relais de Chambord which is only a view meters apart from the Chateau and used to be the kings kennels for the hunting house from the 17th century. Most rooms have a view on the chateau and at night when all tourists are gone it seems that the place becomes magical. Not only by the solitude and the grandness of the chateau and the park with the immense canal, but also by the surrounding nature you have all for your own.
When it gets dark the chateau is illuminated with different light effects but even without this site does not lose any of its sparkle. The Relais has different type of rooms. You can even book a garden suite with direct access to the courtyard garden of the former old building.
The hotel is curated with interesting art by Marie-Laure Joussef, chief curator at the Paris Centre Pompidou for 20 years.

Installation in the Lobby of the Relais de Chambord

The rooms have a clean country chic with wooden floors and black and white tiles in the bathroom. They are simple as the view outside is either when you are lucky onto the chateau or towards the peaceful river overlooking the park.
The restaurant as the same clean, modern chic with local and seasonal products by the young Blésois chef Alexander Trazéres, whose signature dish is vegetable stew with duck leg confit. And do not miss the hotel’s famous cocktail, Crément de Loire with local Liqueur de Chambord.

Dinner at Le Grand Saint-Michel Restaurant

A weekend stay before going to Paris seems a perfect idea. Especially joyful are the morning runs into the Chateau’s park where you are practically by your own.