La Borde

A wonderful visit to this beautiful chateau. Everywhere you look you see beauty. In the middle of the Burgundy wine region you stumble upon this slice of heaven. It is a sanctuary of peace and tranquility. The pool was open and a good temperature in the most stunning setting. There are only 6 rooms which gives it an air of exclusivity and privacy. Marieke and Rik are a wonderfully welcoming couple and we enjoyed the most delicious food every night we were there. On the nights there was no supper offered they recommended excellent local restaurants. The bedroom was charming, very comfortable and clean with windows overlooking the gardens. Highly recommended! It’s perfect for a frazzled person who wants to be comforted by beauty and peace. There are many delights including the games room with a glorious view, and the drinking room with the large open fireplace and the honesty bar.

This is not a 5-star hotel and certainly not worth the €500+ per night price tag. The grounds are beautiful, but the property is run like a simple bed and breakfast (later searching reveled that it was classified as one until 2019). The owners live on the property and run most aspects of the hotel, including the food service, themselves. This can be a lovely experience, but not here. The couple moved from the Netherlands as a semi-retirement from previous careers and treat the grounds first-and-foremost as their home. There are numerous spoken and unspoken rules that they expect you to follow so that you might have the “privilege” of staying on the property. For example, picnics are not allowed anywhere, despite the presence of over a dozen of picnic tables and the lack of any alternative dining options some nights of the week. They also have posted signs that there is €15 corkage fee, even for bottles enjoyed privately in your own room, despite not having a real bar at the hotel. In a futile attempt to follow this rule, we asked about our own wine for dinner on the second night, expecting to be able to pay the corkage fee and enjoy a local bottle we had purchased. Instead, we were admonished loudly and embarrassingly in front of other guests with: “Do you not understand how restaurants work? You’re American so that must be why you don't understand.” Many high-end restaurants and hotels all across France allow the droit de buchon, particularly those located in wine regions. To understand the attitude that will great you here, I suggest going through the responses to the negative reviews posted here and other sites (something I wish we had done as well). The owners often try to turn the issue into the fault of the reviewer; on more than one occasion, they even resorted to posting unnecessarily personal attacks back at their own guests. For the price of this hotel, you could stay at almost any other high-end countryside hotel in France (such as the Relais & Châteaux properties or Les Domaines de Fontenille) that are run by professional staff with high levels of expertise, service, and hospitality. Our experience at La Borde did come close to matching our experiences at these other properties. I strongly suggest that others avoid it as well.

Un très bel endroit mêlant tradition et modernité. L'accueil est très prévenant pour se sentir comme à la maison. A la fois un établissement authentique et également fourniture de tous les services d'un hôtel haut de gamme.