Domaine des Etangs: a boutique hotel complete with Michelin-starred restaurant and art gallery

A château packed with culture, food, books and art gives a new, urban, dimension to a rural heartland, Cathy Adams discovers
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Cathy Adams29 May 2019

It’s easy to talk in phone numbers about Domaine des Etangs. This estate in rural central France (west of Limoges, north-east of Bordeaux, in cognac country) is an 11th-century château (with turrets!) in 2,500 acres of farmland. There’s a Michelin-starred restaurant, an art gallery bookended by two Heywood Hill-curated libraries and 40 ponds amid various outhouses. Oh, and don’t forget the 800 brown Limousin cows that stare at you when you cycle past.

Likewise, I’m sure the renovation cost, from posh family estate to magical boutique hotel, is just as eye-watering as my phone number would be if you whacked a pound sign in front of it.

“The Domaine” has dominated the land outside the village of Massignac since the 11th century, first as the fief of the knights of Chasteigner de la Roche-Posay, then passing in the 19th century to a count before being sold to an engineer. Three decades ago it was sold to the Primat family, who turned it into a family home.

A few years ago the Domaine changed again, into a beautiful, extra-boutique hotel under the guidance of daughter Garance. She set about making it a weekend destination for France’s movers and shakers (it helps that nearby Angoulême is just a two-hour TGV from Paris). Now she’s eyeing international visitors — as is the wider Charente region.

As you roll up the driveway, the Domaine ticks all the medieval-castle boxes: turrets, stone walls, manicured green lawns, lakes. Given there’s a working farm on site (remember those 800 cows?) it’s easy to forget the Domaine is a hotel, not a country estate.

Inside it’s a different story. Designed by French designer Isabelle Stanislas, the interiors are clean, bright, colourful and contemporary. Marble Hermès tables feature glass bowls and the artworks frankly make the Domaine the Charente’s best gallery: a Picasso and a Matisse are among the collection.

One particularly interesting space is the art gallery and two libraries, curated by Mayfair bookshop Heywood Hill. The plan is to host rotating exhibitions, and La Lumiere des Mondes runs from May 24 to the end of the year. Inside the château are seven bespoke rooms, all named after planets. I’m in Venus, a gorgeous suite (there’s a living room, a salon and a bedroom that leads off to a bathroom clad in Finnish-style wood) draped in millennial pinks and bright orange. There’s a bronze baby bath in the corner, while rose-gold chair legs, tables and lighting, plus heavy drapes, give it a warm, regal glow.

The bibliotheque (Domaine des Etangs)

The obsession with the sky hangs heavily — almost every wall is hung with an astronomy chart or something that wouldn’t look out of place in Carl Sagan’s living room. Spa treatments are themed according to the elements. By contrast, the farmhouse cottages are traditional, with millstones and an old hook for the cows. Too lazy to walk? There’s a fleet of electric Citroëns to zip you around.

This place manages to feel cosy, cerebral and cosmopolitan. Cosy because with just seven suites you break bread with your neighbours at breakfast and because there are wellies for you to tramp around the forest. Cerebral because I’ve scrutinised framed insects, there’s a Hermès scarf on the wall, and I’ve let my mind oxygenate with new ideas. Cosmopolitan because it’s made for city people wanting to snap a Picasso before knocking back Pineau de Charentes and be at their desk by 8am on Monday.

You could spend days — hell, weeks — bouncing from your suite to the breakfast room before sloping off on a bike, perhaps stopping to meditate by an Instagram-friendly stream, or minding a boar in the Limousin forest. Hanging out in the thermal baths and pool before dinner at Michelin-starred Dyades isn’t bad either.

Plus, we’re in cognac country, and fanning out in nearby villages are distilleries including the boutique Bourgoin. Angoulême, known as France’s capital of comics, also makes for a charming afternoon. But really, there are no box-ticking attractions in the Charente - just good food, art, countryside and company. And the chance to leave the Domaine feeling a little bit... more whole than when you arrived.

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