Lieu-dit La Resle, Yonne
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Château de la Resle lies in the quiet north of Burgundy, a short drive from the vineyards of Chablis and less than two hours from Paris. In the age of the dinosaurs, all of this lay at the bottom of a warm sea, and the fossil oysters packed into the limestone still give Chablis its salty, flinty edge. The château is considerably younger: a seventeenth-century house with white shutters and climbing roses, which has been a small hotel since 2010.
The simplest way to describe it is a weekend with friends who own a château and an art collection, and like nothing better than sharing both. Those friends are Johan Bouman and Pieter Franssens, two Dutch collectors who bought the house in 2005, after it had spent half a century as a Parisian family's holiday home. There is no reception desk and nobody in uniform. One of the owners opens the door, shows guests to their room and, before long, is explaining where the sculpture on the lawn came from.
There are only ten rooms and suites, spread between the château and its old farm buildings, so the house never feels full. Some rooms are classic, with antiques and soft colours. Others are airy lofts under old oak beams, where a Patricia Urquiola bathtub stands in the middle of the room. Several suites have a kitchen of their own. Art hangs everywhere, but never behind glass. The owners say they have no wish to build a collection, only to live among art, and for a few days their guests get to do the same.
In summer, evenings begin on the wooden deck by the pool, a glass of Chablis in hand, as the old farm buildings throw long shadows across the grass. Dinner follows at La Table de la Resle, around a big oak kitchen that opens onto the pool, where the chef, Iaman Santos Costa, cooks as part of the view. The menu follows the seasons and the local farms, Burgundian at heart but lighter on its feet, with plenty of vegetables. On Saturdays it turns into a longer, more festive affair. In a room this small, conversations tend to drift between tables by dessert.
Then the countryside switches off. There is no traffic and no music, only the dark garden and Arik Levy's sculpture, a cluster of steel facets, catching the last light from the windows.
By day, the choice is mostly between Chablis and the sun lounger. The tasting rooms are a short drive away, and the vast Cistercian abbey church of Pontigny makes a fine detour, yet plenty of guests never get further than the pool and a book. The château works best for couples and design lovers, especially those who find grand hotels a little stiff. It is less suited to anyone expecting a night porter and room service around the clock. The owners, after all, need their sleep too.
Beneath the lawn, the old seabed still lies folded into the limestone, oysters and all. It took two men from a country built partly on former seabed to bring this house back to life. The Dutch have always known what to do with land the sea left behind. Here, they simply added a pool.
In the park
Rock Growth, a sculpture of mirrored steel facets by Arik Levy, stands on the lawn; the Chablis room and the Montigny suite both look out on it.
The Fontenay suites fill the former farm, 75 m² over two floors joined by a spiral staircase. The living room is downstairs; upstairs the bedroom runs straight into the bathroom, where a Patricia Urquiola bathtub stands on a raised floor beside two basins and a rain shower. The windows look over the pool. Unlike the Vezelay suites next door, Fontenay has no kitchen.
The two Irancy rooms are in the main house: 35 m² each, with a marble fireplace, antiques set against contemporary paintings, dark Farrow & Ball walls and a large bathroom with a rain shower. One looks over the château's grounds, the other over the hills that separate the house from the Chablis vineyards. They are for two only, with no sofa bed.
The outdoor pool, 18 by 5 metres and heated to 24°C, runs along the old farm buildings, edged by a timber deck, palms in tubs and a walled lawn. It opens from 1 May to 1 October. The Vezelay suites give straight onto it. Children swim with an adult, inflatables and toys are not allowed, and guests leaving can stay on after check-out.
Dinner is cooked in an open kitchen and, in fine weather, served on the deck beside the pool. There is one set menu, rewritten each week around what local farms deliver, with vegetables given real attention, and the wines come from Burgundy growers who intervene as little as possible. Only hotel guests can book, and the tables are few.
At a glance
Where
Lieu-dit La Resle, 89230 Montigny-la-Resle, Yonne, northern Burgundy; between the Chablis vineyards and Auxerre; less than two hours from Paris by car, ten minutes from an A6 exit; direct trains Paris Bercy to Auxerre-Saint-Gervais, taxis at the station
Why this one
Several hundred works, in every room.
Heated, with suites opening onto it.
A weekly set menu from local farms.
The Edit Notes
La Table de la Resle serves dinner from Friday to Tuesday only, for hotel guests, at a few tables and by reservation. On Wednesday and Thursday evenings, and during the day, the kitchen sends out the Planche de la Ferme instead: local cheese, charcuterie, bread and butter, on the terrace or in the room. In October the opening days can shift. The kitchen is small and the menu fixed, so menus entirely without gluten or lactose are not offered; say so when booking.
The pool opens from 1 May to 1 October, and in those months the farm suites earn their place: the Vezelay duplexes step from a private terrace straight onto the pool, and the Fontenay suites look across it. Outside the season the château rooms make more sense. Chablis and Irancy each have a fireplace, Montigny sits under the original roof timbers, and the sauna and steam room are booked as private slots, ideally in advance, as the sauna needs time to heat.
Children are accepted, but the hotel says plainly that it is built around calm and has no children's facilities. Only the Saint Bris suite, 65 m² under the slate roof with a kitchen and a sofa bed, takes two adults and two children over three; three other suites take one child, and extra guests are charged. At the pool children must be with an adult, and toys and inflatables stay out. Pets are not accepted, and smoking is limited to two spots outdoors.
Paris is less than two hours away and the A6 ten minutes, but the tastings of Chablis and Irancy, the abbey at Pontigny and Noyers-sur-Serein all need a car. By train, there are direct services from Paris Bercy to Auxerre-Saint-Gervais and taxis at the station; the Avis branch opposite closes at weekends. There is no night staff and check-in has a fixed window in the afternoon and early evening; later arrivals receive self check-in instructions, so announce the arrival time.
The price question
The money buys a small house that feels lived in: ten rooms among a private collection of art and design, breakfast, the pool, sauna and gym included, and a dinner cooked for hotel guests alone. It does not buy hotel cover: no night staff, no restaurant on two evenings a week, a pool closed from October to May.
Book it for two or three summer nights from Friday to Tuesday, with a car for Chablis and Pontigny, in a pool-side Vezelay or Fontenay suite. A family of five, a late-night arrival by train, or a midweek stay with dinner every evening is better placed elsewhere.
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The Extra Edit
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