For somewhere romantic with that WOW factor, this is the place. Additionally, the service is exceptional and I have rarely come across anywhere (including America or the Far East) where the service is anymore efficient or accommodating, which is saying something, as I have become a very demanding customer from all my travels. However, this will not be a cheap stay but that was not one of my concerns for this trip.

We flew our four guests and ourselves from London after our wedding dinner and to spend a night somewhere exotic. The Chateau had arranged for a very comfortable Mercedes people-carrier with an English speak guide cum driver to pick us up.

When we arrived, the bellboy and the receptionist we standing by the gates to welcome us (there must have been some co-ordination between the driver and the hotel here that I missed). It was drizzling slightly and they had umbrellas hoisted ready to welcome us.

While a chateau, the main building is surrounded by a proper moat and is to be accessed by one of 3 bridges. It has four towers. Rooms in the main building all have historical features. Rooms in the stable are more contemporary, have a more airy feel and a fabulous view of the countryside since the chateau is on the side of a hill. The large ground are very well tended and there is an interesting looking outdoor pool which is circular in shape which is slightly away from the main building but this is only opened from mid-May to mid-September. The suites have proper fireplaces and they are large enough for you to stand under and look out at the sky through the chimneys.

I had ordered a French wedding cake and champagne through an email exchange about a couple of weeks ahead of time. So we were whisked up direct to the salon to sit around this massive fireplace where they delivered an incredibly beautifully presented cake on a mirrored tray. The champagne was on iced on our arrival as requested. At all times, we had a waiter standing by very discreetly waiting to serve us more cake and more champagne. We then wondered back down to reception to check-in. I had requested three specific rooms and this what we got. We were walked to the rooms where we were talked through the facilities and the history of the room before being left with our registration documentation with a request that we wander down to reception with the check-in documentation filled in and with our passports. Our bags were already in our room. There was a slight mix-up in bags for our guests but I think they forgot tag their bags.

I will not comment further about the rooms as the web site has excellent pictures of each room. I will only add that the pictures do not do the room justice and the rooms are far larger than the pictures. The bathrooms are large and interesting. It is a bubble-bath bath although there is a shower by the side of the bath, one tends to makes a mess of the bathroom if one stands up to shower. The toilets are interesting. It is a modern toilet dressed up as a traditional “thunderbox” or throne with a phone attached to the back.

We met our guests at the salon for drinks. The hotel was not that full being so early in the season and there was loads of room for everyone. Spoke to the sommelier about another bottle of champagne and wine for dinner. They have a really good wine cellar especially when it comes to the selection of upmarket stuff. The sommiler knows his stuff. Dinner menus in both French and English were available in the salon when your dinner order is taken. Our guest were presenting us with our presents at this stage and the staff were so obliging at getting a table knife to open the presents and helping us clear up the wrapping paper after.

At this point, unbeknownst to me, the excellent personal service at hotel kicks in again. One of our guests disappeared off to her room but in reality when to see reception about accessing our room about laying confetti and chocolates all over our room. The hotel staff knew it was our wedding and played along but stood guard at the door to ensure that she was only putting stuff in the room as oppose to taking stuff out. Such was the scale of the bedroom decorations, I felt obliged to leave a large tip for the cleaners when we checked out for all the extra clean up that they would have to do.

She also spoke to chef about bringing out a special desert with a “special” wedding decoration which chef added a couple of sparklers cannons from his personal stock of toys.

One of the reasons why we chose the hotel has that I had read good reviews about the food. We are not disappointed. No heavy creamy French sauces but great food served beautifully decorated with all the natural tastes coming through. It was spring and they had a big fire burning adding to the atmosphere of the dining experience. Coffee and digestives were served in the salon.

Breakfast the following morning was a simple continental buffet. Most of us ordered a cooked breakfast for a small supplement in price. I will add that for English guest, they serve good strong English breakfast tea unlikely most other places in Europe probably thanks to the owner of the hotel.

At checkout, I was presented with the bill with no indication of service charge for the dinner for the night before so I left a little extra as I thought the service was so good. As we had booked a short excursion to visit a couple of wineries on the way to the airport, we were given three picnic bags of waters, sweets and apples – a really nice touch. The cost of transfers and excursions were also conveniently included in the hotel bill.

If you were here for a couple of nights, I would suggest a personal car. The previous poster said “get treated like a princess”. I would echo comment that but with princess services comes princess prices.