Domaine de Rymska

Most hotels are named after a family or a view. This one is named after a horse, which at least makes it clear who runs the place. In 2014 the estate's stud welcomed its very first filly, Rymska. She won races in France, then did what ambitious country girls have always done and left for America, where she won some more. The estate could hardly name itself after the cows, so it named itself after her.

It lies half an hour from Beaune, in the part of Burgundy where the cows comfortably outnumber the coach parties. There is no château to speak of, just eighty hectares of meadow and pond, with a hotel that arrived last and knows its place. The high-speed train from Paris stops a short drive away, about an hour and a half from the capital. That is roughly how long the cows take to notice anyone has arrived.

The real celebrities live in the paddocks. Some twenty thoroughbred mares graze here, and every spring they produce a crop of foals who are all legs and no plan. Next door, the farm keeps Wagyu cattle in a state of calm that would make a spa jealous, alongside Mangalitza pigs so woolly they look like sheep in disguise. Eric, who looks after them, gives tours with the air of a man introducing his family.

The hotel, by comparison, keeps a low profile. Its thirteen rooms and suites are cosy and contemporary rather than antique, and the windows look out on grass. Occasionally the grass has a horse on it. The spa treatments use Pinot Noir, which in Burgundy is less a gimmick than a local habit applied externally. A heated pool waits outside too, although the Wagyu remain the most relaxed residents on the property.

Dinner is where the farm tour comes full circle. Chef Jérémie Muller cooks in a ground-floor dining room with bare stone and an open fire, and most of what reaches the table was raised on the estate. Some guests find it charming to meet their pork beforehand. Others prefer to concentrate on the cellar, which holds more than twelve hundred wines and no awkward introductions.

Deep countryside comes with its terms. A car is all but compulsory, and the nightlife consists of the fire and the occasional owl. For guests who miss horsepower of the other kind, the hotel rents out a Porsche, which must confuse the mares no end. Rymska is a natural fit for families, since one foal beats any screen, and for food lovers who like to know their supply chain by name.

Rymska herself became famous across the Atlantic. Back home, the name stayed behind and grew into a hotel. And every spring a new batch of foals tumbles into the meadows, while guests lean on the fence and try to pick the next champion. The odds are long, as they always are in racing. But this is the only bet in the sport that costs nothing to lose.