The Insider / My top picks for a cozy weekend just outside of Paris
Including forest cabins, a lavish hotel, bed & breakfasts with farm to table restaurants and a spa hotel that’s perfect for relaxing...
Welcome to another edition of The Insider. Life, events, the Rouen renovation, travel and other projects suddenly overhauled my substack schedule (thanks for sticking with me, it really does means a lot!), plus I’ve been thinking about how I can better utilise this platform, to bring you more of the content that I hope you’ll love, and keep my website alive and kicking. Is anyone reading blogs/websites anymore? Are you? I’m incredibly excited about Substack, but it has been a little challenging adding another platform into the mix. Anyway, expect some changes in the coming weeks as I make some tweaks, but in the meantime, while I’m mulling all of this over, we went on a rather gorgeous and cozy weekend away with friends two weeks ago.
I cannot tell you how rejuvenating and life-affirming leaving your daily routine even for just 24 hours can be; to slow down, walk amongst trees, feel the crunch of rust and gold-coloured leaves under your feet and fresh air on your face. Plus it was a lovely opportunity to further bond with friends, to put down our phones for a few hours (when not documenting our stay) and share wholesome meals around the table - to feel that offline human connection that can sometimes be so lacking in city life, when it feels like it’s all going by at a hundred miles an hour and on our phones.
I feel incredibly lucky that we now have a car and can get out of the city easily, as I’m craving space and nature more often. Maybe it’s me just getting older or post-Covid life, but I also think that the devastating events that are currently happening in the world, which make me feel so sad and helpless, but at the same time grateful everyday that I get to wake up in a safe warm bed, in a home with running water and a full fridge, are giving me the need to feel more grounded and connected with the natural world.
We stayed on the Domaine de Courances, run by Pierres d’Histoire that’s located an hour’s drive south of Paris. I’d already stayed on the grounds a few years ago in their renovated rentals and it was lovely, but this time we lodged in their largest and most elegant period property, La Regie, meaning management (it would have been inhabited by the château’s manager). It’s a handsome house built during the reign of Louis XIII, with large windows and a slate roof reminiscent of the Haussmann buildings in Paris. Situated on the edge of the park, by the château’s gates, it was also built to give a glimpse of the owner’s wealth and status from the road. And it has just the type of beautiful and traditional interiors that you’d expect from a such a building - claw-footed baths, farmhouse tables, deep comfy sofas to sink into, fireplaces, high ceilings, a winding oak staircase, checkerboard flooring and large sash windows with stunning views of the château’s grounds and beyond.
Of course we’re now thinking about where we can go next, so I thought I’d share my top twelve picks for the best places to stay within a two hour drive of Paris for a cosy weekend in winter or a getaway during the warmer months that includes a house that sleeps 14 in Normandy (if you’re looking for a family getaway for next summer for example), a newly-opened beautifully-decorated lavish hotel; bed and breakfasts with a farm to table restaurant concept and a spa hotel that’s perfect for a relaxing girls weekend or with your partner…