IN the 1800s, Honoré de Balzac wrote ‘Quand on observe la nature, on y découvre les plaisanteries d’une ironie supérieure’, noting the ‘superb irony’ of Mother Nature placing toads close to flowers. I didn’t discover any amphibians at Domaine des Etangs —a private estate encircling a medieval château in Massignac, a charming, albeit little-known region in southwest France—but I did find peace.
As someone who’s always appreciated flora and fauna, I assumed I was fully aware of the healing and soothing power of Nature. Yet, it was only when I stopped checking work emails and lay back on a wooden sun lounger on the grounds of this 2,500-acre estate and acknowledged the simple beauty of the tree above, silhouetted against a cobalt-blue sky, that a sense of calm and tranquillity washed over me.
This feeling is exactly what Garance Primat—the owner of the château, built in the 11th century as the fief of the knights of Chasteigner de la Roche- Posay—hopes her guests will enjoy.
Rising majestically out of the morning mist floating over the lake, with its mellow stone, russet-roofed turrets and restored period details, complemented by a collection of contemporary art from Matisse to Picasso, it’s impossible not to fall under the spell of this immaculately run retreat. Once a family home, the Domaine was transformed into a hotel in 2015 and has 29 rooms. Choose from seven vast suites in the château—I stayed in Soleil, with a kingsize bed in a Rapunzel-Esque round tower—four in the longére (a converted barn that houses the Michelin-starred Dyades restaurant, a library, and an art gallery), plus six well-appointed cottages dotted amid parkland studded with modern sculpture.
Denne historien er fra December 25, 2019-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra December 25, 2019-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
