L'Hostellerie de l'Abbaye and Logis de France
The first and last place we stayed on this holiday was L'Hostellerie de l'Abbaye in the little village of Le Thoronet a little way off the autoroute slightly north west of Tropez and just over an hour's drive from Nice. Which is why I chose it. I did not want David to have to drive too far on our first day in France - and I also wanted an easy drive. The autoroute is just by the airport and this hotel is literally about ten minutes off the autoroute along a very straight road. I also chose it because it was a Logis de France hotel. We had not meant to stay there on our way back, but when the b&b I had booked fell through, almost at the last moment, I thought to revisit Le Thoronet because our experience there had been so good. Fortunately they had one room left and so, once again, we had a really easy drive to Nice for our departure, not to mention a great place to stay on our last night in France.
Before the days of the internet we used to buy the Michelin Red Guide to help us choose hotels to stay in and restaurants to visit. And it very rarely failed us. It also rapidly became clear that almost all the hotels that we picked belonged to the Logis de France chain. And since that time we have always felt that if it was a Logis hotel then it was probably going to be good. I don't think we have ever been disappointed. What used to be Logis de France, is now just Logis for it operates throughout Europe now. Although when I looked at its history on the website I saw that it was founded back in 1949 and even then had hotels in most of the major countries of Europe. It is also more correctly a chain of hotel-restaurants not just hotels. They are very proud of their restaurants. Which is another reason why they are so good.
This is not a chain of hotels owned by one company - it is a federation of like-minded hotel owners. The central body can handle bookings and lists all their hotels, so no doubt from a marketing point of view it is worth belonging to. They also have a rating system. But all of the hotels are individually owned - mostly family run and small - around 20 bedrooms, and although they do exist in the larger towns they also exist in small villages and out of the way places throughout France. They are mostly not that flash in terms of their rooms - no massive and sumptuous rooms as in Dubai or any Asia/Pacific resort hotel. The ones we have stayed in are either two or three star hotels. The rooms are modest, but they are always comfortable and clean, mostly air-conditioned and with a TV. And relatively cheap - around 100 euros a night - well in May/June anyway. And if you go for the demi-pension option they are even more of a bargain because you get your breakfast and dinner thrown in for a relatively small extra price. For example our room, dinner and breakfast for both of us - that is total price - at L'Hostellerie de l'Abbaye was just 162 euros - an absolute bargain for the dinner was superb. And I will come back to that.
We have stayed in a few and I had a rummage around my photos to see if I could find some examples. I came up with two - not forgetting La Bergerie in Aragon about which I have written already. Here are some pictures of the two I found - Les Terrasses du Bassin in L'Isle sur la Sorgue - a stunning village full of antique shops in Provence, and the Hotel des Peupliers in Baratier near Embrun in the French Alps. This one had a most superb restaurant and also a spa, not to mention the views of the mountains.
We have stayed in others - one somewhere north of the Viaduc de Millau, one on the Garonne estuary somewhere, Rustrel in the Luberon - and no doubt there are others too. But I cannot remember their names, and I have no photos so you will have to be content with this representative two. The meal we had in the Alps - where, now I come to think of it, we stayed because of another stuff up with a b&B - was just about the best meal we had on that particular holiday - and our meals at Le Thoronet, whilst not quite up there with La Bergerie and La Table d'Yvan (another day), were truly not far behind. Particularly the first night's meal I think.
The restaurant at the hotel was called Les Restanques du Thoronet. Restanques is a word I did not know so I looked it up. Apparently it's a dry stone wall used to shore up agricultural terraces - so sort of another word for terraces I guess. Not sure why they chose this word - I should have asked. The hotel was on sloping ground but there were no terraces to speak of. There is an abbey though - and which we visited on a previous holiday. It's a very simple, plain and serene place. Not at all showy and smaller than many. Worth a visit though. We passed it again on our way back to the hotel on our last day.
The restaurant and the friendliness of the owner, his son and his staff - down to the cleaner - was the main thing we remember though. The food, as I have said was just wonderful - see below. And it tasted as good as it looked.
On our first night there we ate inside because it was a bit cool - even cold - and damp. We did not swim in the pool though we wandered the lovely garden and admired the truly beautiful statue sitting on the grass. On our second visit it was more than warm enough to eat outside and for David to have a swim. The waitress, like Priscilla at La Bergerie was warm, knowledgeable and efficient and the ambience was just what was needed for perhaps our last night ever in France. Breakfast too - lovely bread, croissants and pastries, super coffee, fruit, yoghurt, muesli - all the usual wonderful stuff. This time though the breakfast room was crowded - I think a wedding party had been staying there and had filled it up. On our first night I think there might only have been one or two other guests. David wrote a review on Trip Advisor, that the owner warmly thanked him for. No doubt this means a lot to them.
So - if you ever fly into Nice and are moving westwards, this is the place to stay.
