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Ten top rural retreats where fantastic food and wine is matched by stunning surroundings
La Ferme de Montagne is perched on a hilltop above Les Gets in Haute Savoie at
the top of a glorious valley and at the bottom of a ski slope. It’s so
much more than a ski chalet – and it has everything you could want: a glorious
Alpine setting, a fabulous spa, skiing, mountain strolls and cooking that beats
all. The charming Australian hostess Suzanne Dixon- Hudson used to run restaurants
in Sydney so she knows her onions, and it’s no coincidence that the wonderful
staff at La Ferme largely come from Michelin-starred and five-star London establishments.
The food is magnificent (see left); organic where possible and, in season, cooked
with herbs plucked from the surrounding mountains. The 11 bedrooms are bijou
but extremely comfortable. You simply won’t want to leave. Opens 18 December.
Words Nicki Symington
Doubles from €200 in low season, €370 high season, includes breakfast
and dinner and a spa treatment. La Turche, Les Gets, France, tel: +44 870 161
4229, www.fermedemontagne.com
Discovering a country retreat no more than half an hour from town is always a
satisfying find, but when it happens to be one of Belgium’s hippest hotels
that also houses a gourmet restaurant, praise is due all round. Chateau du Lacsits in extensive grounds overlooking Lake Genval and feels light-years away
from the nearby city. Brussels’ cognoscenti flock here for the beautifully
executed modern- Mediterranean cuisine served in the überhip Genval Les
Bains restaurant (expect wild boar carpaccio, a selection of sushi, or pan-fried
duck foie gras on caramelised apple) before relaxing over cognac and cigars,
beside a crackling fire in the lounge. Upstairs the rooms provide a luxurious
weekend haven to sleep off any over indulgence, and there’s a fitness studio
downstairs if the guilt becomes intrusive.
Words NS
Dinner from €40 per person, exc. wine. Double rooms from €270. Avenue
du Lac 87, Genval, Belgium, tel: +32 (0)2 655 7171, www.chateaudulac-belgium.com
If exclusive yet understated is your thing, then the family-run Hotel Bellevue in Cogne in the Valle d’Aosta ticks both boxes. It is in the fortunate
position of being the only hotel in the valley, but its fame spreads far beyond,
principally for the gourmet heights of its cooking. Much of the food is home-grown
in summer (there’s a circular potager in the grounds that supplies the
kitchen with much of its greenery) and the wine list is extensive and well chosen
by the delightful hosts Signor and Signora Jeantet-Roullet. The hotel has been
delightfully decorated; some of the suites have open fires and others rustic
four-poster beds, and many have views up the valley towards the glacier.
Words
NS
Dinner from €40 per person, excl. wine. Doubles from €140, suites
from €285. 22 Rue Grand Paradis, Cogne, Valle d’Aosta,
Italy, tel: +39 0165 74825, www.hotelbellevue.it
Since he bought the Auberge de Tourrettes four years ago, Danish businessman
Christian Nielsen, a long-time fan of the hilltop village Tourrettes, has given
it a facelift. Folksy clutter has been replaced by subtle, Scandinavian tastes:
white table-linen is lifted with a splash of emerald glassware handmade in nearby
Biot, and nothing detracts from the knock-out view. Two sides of the restaurant
look out over the Loup valley, with the wide blue Mediterranean and Nice in the
distance. On a clear day you can see as far as the Cap d’Antibes. The short
but perfectly formed menu is creative Provençal, with seasonal produce
from the region: herbs from the garden, fish dishes like red mullet with tomato
and fennel compote, plenty of game in the winter, and a great cheeseboard, thanks
to some local mountain goats. Rooms, some with French windows leading to a bougainvillea-draped
roof terrace, are simply decorated. Fling open the wooden shutters for a perfectly
framed sea view, from your bath. The auberge will be closed until 10 February
while it expands to 10 rooms.
Words Gemma Elwin Harris
Dinner €45 per person excl. wine. Rooms from €112-€210. 11
Route de Grasse, Tourrettes sur Loup, France, tel: +33 (0)4 9359 3005, www.aubergedetourrettes.fr
Santi Santamaria was born in the house that is now his restaurant, but don’t
expect nostalgia here. With its sharply observed metropolitan style Can Fabeshas much in common with trendy Barcelona. And since the restaurant gained a third
Michelin star 10 years ago, raves for self-taught Santamaria’s contemporary
Catalan cooking have declared him close to genius. Unusual pairings such as pig’s
trotter and caviar are juxtaposed
with dishes like baby goat cooked with sage, which reflect the Sierra de
Montseny location.
With just five coolly minimalist bedroom suites, a cigar bar, and an informal
restaurant dealing in lighter lunches and dinners, what more could you ask for – except
maybe one more night?
Words Elizabeth Carter
Dinner approx. €150 per person. Rooms €180-€280. Can Fabes,
Sant Joan 6, Sant Celoni, Catalunya, tel: +34 93 867 2851, www.canfabes.com
'La Rez’ as the rich and famous call it, drapes itself over the lower reaches
of the imposing Puig d’es Teix mountain, overlooking the tiny village of
Deia on the north-western coast of Mallorca. Built around two manor houses that
date back to the 16th and 17th centuries, La Residencia has long been on most
people’s wish-list of gourmet getaways (including Tom Hanks, Bruce Springsteen,
Kate Moss and the Emperor of Japan). Start with a welcoming glass of cava on
the terrace, then dine on sweet prawns and candied belly pork at the luxurious
El Olivo restaurant. Spend the days by the azure-blue pool, take a shuttle to
the hotel’s own private beach or wander through the sleepy, picturesque
village, before returning to your room in time for the sunset. Closed for renovations,
re-opens 28 Jan. Words Jill Dupleix
Dinner €55 per person, exc. wine.
Room rates from €225. Carrer Son Canals s/n, 07179
Deia, Mallorca, tel: +34 971 639 011, www.hotel-laresidencia.com
Nice is not a city best known for its food and wine – pizza, tomato salad
and a glass of rosé is a typical Riviera lunch – but the hills behind
Nice hide some real Provençal treasures. Not least of which is La Bastide
Saint-Antoine, Jacques Chibois’ fabulous hotel and restaurant, located
in the stunningly pretty village of Grasse. M. Chibois’ elegant take on
Provençal cuisine has earned him two Michelin stars, with inspiration
for the food drawn from the hotel’s setting amid several hectares of olive
groves and fragrant gardens.
Start dinner on the lavender-scented terrace with oysters flavoured with rose
petals and lemon- infused olive oil, or perhaps purple asparagus with truffle
and foie gras ice cream, then try lobster with black olive fondue and beetroot
jus, or veal sweetbreads with morels and pea purée.
Round off the meal with wild strawberries, jasmine jam and orange sorbet. Rooms
are decorated in classic Provençal style. Words Bill Knott
Three-course dinner from €110 excl. wine. Double rooms €180 (low season).
Suite €460 (high season). 48 Avenue Henri-Dunant, Grasse,
Côte d’Azur,
tel : +33 (0)4 93 709 494, www.jacques-chibois.com
Those looking for a rural retreat within striking distance of Madrid, but without
the formality of a hotel, will slip happily into Salvador Gallego’s El
Cenedor de Salvador restaurant with rooms. Since opening it in 1985, Gallego
and his wife Toni have honed hospitality (extremely welcoming) and food (one
Michelin- star). It’s an easy drive from Madrid and the setting at the
foot of the Guadarrama Mountains is wonderfully peaceful. There’s a lot
of personality and character here, not least in the modern Mediterranean cooking
which delivers gutsy dishes like haunch of venison with three purées,
while the restaurant has a soft romantic look in the evening. The seven extremely
well-equipped bedrooms are
highly comfortable. Words EC
Dinner €100 per person. Rooms €150-€300 Avenida de Espana,
30, E-28411 Moralzarzel, Madrid, tel: +34 91 857 7722
Read’s Hotel is one of the most stunning on the island. A converted and
extended manor house in the middle of the countryside, it boasts every facility
you might expect of a five-star hotel, but the standard of Marc Fosh’s
cooking eclipses even the wonderfully rococo décor. The dining room, with
its unfeasibly high ceiling, sweeping stone arches and grand trompe l’oeil
frescoes, is spectacular enough, but the food is more than a match for its setting.
Fosh’s menu might include guineafowl and black truffle agnolotti with salsify,
broad beans and Jabugo ham; prawn ravioli with black rice, cuttlefish tagliatelle
and lobster consommé; fillet of veal with goat’s milk, white truffle,
crispy potato and Bellota ham; or grilled sea bass with an anchovy parmentier
and liquorice sauce. Fosh’s famous pudding – caramelised pineapple
and ginger lasagne, coconut sorbet and white pepper toffee sauce – is simply
sublime. Prices are ridiculously low for food of this quality and this is one
of the best places on the island to try some of Mallorca’s 'new wave’ wines.
Words BK
Dinner €50, excl. wine. Double rooms €210 in low season,
€540 a suite in high season. Santa María, Mallorca,
tel: +34 971 140 261, www.readshotel.com
Denmark is known for combining cool designs with welcoming comfort and you won’t
find a better example of this style than the Skovshoved Hotel & Restaurant,
where a beautifully simple interior combines dark wooden floors with breezy white
furnishings. Located among the millionaire villas on the exclusive Strandvej
('Beach Road’), several of the hotel’s 22 rooms have beautiful ocean
views and its restaurant packs out nightly with a trendy Copenhagen crowd. Expect
the talented kitchen to work wonders with straightforward recipes from Italy,
France and Scandinavia, perhaps turning out a rich truffle risotto ahead of cod
baked with mushrooms and a classic crème brulée. Staff are wonderfully
well-practised in the art of good old-fashioned hospitality too.
Words Annica
Wainwright
Dinner 340DKK. Double rooms from
€180, suites from €335. Strandvej 267, Charlottenlund, tel: +45 39
640 028, www.skovshovedhotel.com
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