1883 route du Bignac, Dordogne
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Retreats are everywhere now, whole weekends of yoga and switched-off phones promising an escape from the noise of modern life. Centuries before anyone thought to market the idea, a mayor of Bergerac had it first. In the seventeenth century he built himself a country house on a hilltop south of the town, a chartreuse in the language of the Périgord, where he could leave the affairs of the town behind for a while. La Chartreuse du Bignac still does that job, with a few comforts no seventeenth-century mayor could have ordered.
Brigitte and Jean-Louis Viargues took close to ten years to restore the house. It keeps its stone walls and wooden ceilings, and from its windows the view circles the horizon over vineyards and woods. The rooms, twelve in all, are shared out between the manor and old farm buildings that once stored wine and sheltered geese. The most unusual is in the former mill, where part of the floor is glass, with the stream running underneath.
The grounds are where the retreat really happens. Paths lead between box hedges three centuries old and down past springs that feed a chain of ponds, a walk that has become a morning habit by the second day. The pool is set on the brow of the hill, and from the water the bell towers of the neighbouring villages rise above the vines. Massages are available on request, though this is no spa resort.
The days are slow by design. Electric bikes can be reserved for the quiet lanes that roll down to Bergerac or to the château of Monbazillac and its sweet white wines. Once everyone is home again, the bar mixes cocktails and herbal infusions from plants picked in the park. That is as close to monastic as the evenings come.
Dinner happens in the old barn, with the estate and the hills spread out beyond the windows. The chef, Jean Twari, cooks with what the garden and nearby growers provide, precisely and in step with the seasons, and he often comes out to sit with his guests when service winds down. The wine list leans on the local appellations. In winter dinner comes indoors, close to the fire, with a library next door.
Even a retreat has its trials. The house is small and in places its age shows, with some rooms a little worn, and on busy nights the service, which rests on few shoulders, can lose its smile. Beyond the gate, a car or the bikes are needed for most outings, and the house closes for a few weeks over the winter holidays. Couples in need of quiet, and gourmets who like their dinner close to its garden, will soon stop counting the days.
The mayor of Bergerac climbed this hill to leave the town behind for a while. Nearly four centuries on, the idea still works, and the wine list would surely have kept him here a day longer.
Before the hotel
In the twentieth century the estate became a farm. Animals took over the park and used the ornamental pond as a watering place, and the vineyard was replaced by an orchard of prune d'Ente plums, the fruit dried as pruneaux d'Agen.
Le Moulin is the estate's former mill, 50 metres down the slope from the main house and restored as a 70 m² suite. Stone walls and an exposed timber roof frame a bedroom and a sitting area; a glass slab set into the floor shows the water passing beneath. Outside are a private terrace and a solarium, facing the park, a pond and the valley.
Below the house the garden steps down in terraces of clipped box, stone basins and lawns towards the water. The park covers 22 hectares and holds some 2,000 plant varieties, with a pond, springs and water features, orchards and kitchen gardens, worked without chemical products. Gardener Pascal runs seasonal workshops, including the pruning and care of box, on reservation.
Jean Twari cooks in a kitchen that opens onto the dining room, under a high frame of old beams with tall windows onto the countryside; in fine weather tables move to the terrace. Produce comes from the estate's gardens and orchards and named local suppliers, from Neuvic caviar to Couderc farm meat, and the chef can adapt menus for vegetarian, vegan or gluten-intolerant guests.
The outdoor pool sits on the brow of the hill, edged with stone paving, parasols and loungers, with a 360° view over the surrounding hills and vineyards. It stays open all year but is not heated, and it is reserved for hotel guests, so diners from outside do not use it. Massages can also be given beside the pool.
At a glance
Where
1883 route du Bignac, 24520 Saint-Nexans, Dordogne, in the Périgord Pourpre; 8 km south of Bergerac, 6 km from Monbazillac, 18 km from Issigeac, 24 km from Eymet; Sarlat 80 km, Saint-Émilion 75 km. From Bergerac by the N21 towards Agen, then the D14 to Saint-Nexans. Bergerac station about 12 km, Bordeaux-Mérignac airport 110 km
Why this one
The mill suite has a glass floor.
Kitchen gardens and orchards on site.
Ponds, springs and box in the park.
The Edit Notes
Le Moulin stands 50 metres below the main house, in the estate's former mill: 70 m², a sitting area, a private terrace and solarium, and a glass slab in the floor over the water running beneath. It opens onto the park, a pond and the valley, and is the most secluded of the twelve. That distance is the trade: dinner, breakfast and the lounges are up the slope. Families who want a whole house do better in La Maison du Boulanger, with its fireplace and garden.
The restaurant is open to outside guests by reservation, the number of covers is kept small, and Tuesday is its weekly closing day; it also serves lunch on Sundays. On other days, from May to October, hotel guests can order a light lunch on site, booked in the morning. On a Tuesday evening the answer is a short drive to the house's own Bistrot L'Estela, 3.5 km away in the village, which serves simple market cooking and opens that evening; otherwise the team suggests other addresses nearby.
The house has no lift. Classic rooms are upstairs, at 17 m² with beams and wooden floors; the Superior rooms are split between the first floor and the garden level. Deluxe rooms are all at garden level, with terracotta floors and French windows onto a private terrace facing the park and pond. Pets are accepted only in the garden-level Superior rooms, the Deluxe rooms and the suites. The Superior room Caselle is the one equipped for guests with reduced mobility.
The hotel closes for one week over the Christmas holidays and two weeks at the beginning of January, so New Year's Eve itself is open and offered as a package. Outside that break it receives guests all year. The pool stays open in every season but is not heated, so between autumn and late spring it is more a view than a swim. In colder months the reading room and lounge, with more than a thousand books and a fire, take over from the garden.
The price question
The money buys a small house on a large estate: twelve rooms on 22 hectares, a chef who cooks from the estate's gardens a few steps from the bedrooms, and a pool kept for hotel guests. It does not buy hotel infrastructure. There is no spa, no gym, no lift and no heated water, the restaurant rests one night a week, and almost every outing needs a car or a bike.
Book it for two or three quiet nights between April and October, with dinner on site and a room at garden level or in the mill, and the days spent on bikes among the Bergerac vineyards. Guests who want treatments under one roof, a heated pool, or a dinner on every night of a short Tuesday stay are better placed elsewhere.
Relais de la Poste
A former nineteenth-century coaching stop in Magescq, in the pine forests of the Landes, run by the Coussau family for three generations: 16 rooms and suites, two restaurants, a heated pool and a wellness area, in parkland with an orchard and a small vineyard.
Logis de la Cadène
Rooms and suites inside the village of Saint-Émilion, decorated with old woodwork, stone walls and beams, and named after years in the de Boüard de Laforest family's history, from 1544 to 2022.
The Extra Edit
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