03/03/2018 Top 10 bijou B&Bs in France | Travel | The Guardian

Top 10 bijou B&Bs in France

Here are 10 new one and two room B&Bs, all with a certain je ne sais quoi, from the new
Sawday's book, Special Places to Stay: French Bed & Breakfast
Alastair Sawday
Fri 8 Mar 2013 21.00 GMT

1 Alfonso's Wagon, Gard

Once home to Alfonso, a daredevil leopard-tamer (so Nella, the owner, would have you
believe), this 100-year-old roulotte is a whirl of fairy lights, vintage finds, mirrors, cushions,
prints and books, and a musical library of Gypsy jazz. A cupboard reveals a bright pink loo-
and-basin closet; the gas shower is a dash outside to a hut. And your outdoor kitchen table
overlooks the training ring of a busy stud farm. The medieval village of Sauve is nearby.

• From £80 a night, room only, 01275 395447, canopyandstars.co.uk

2 Une Chambre à Montmartre, Paris

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Une Chambre a Montmartre

The steep climb is worth every step. One floor up, Claire lives at the top of a real old
Montmartre house: wonky stairs, the neighbour's cat, a sense of community. The window of
your independent room has dramatic views: the Sacré Cœur peeks into a stylish bathroom; the
bedroom is an attractive mix of brocante (Claire was in antiques) and clean-limbed modernity.
Breakfast comes on a 1950s trolley.

• €160 a night B&B, chambre-montmartre.com, claire.maubert@gmail.com

3 Bergerie de la Moutonnière, Le Pin, Normandy

Bergerie de la Moutonnière

Sheep still graze behind this charming independent bergerie, at one end of your hospitable
Dutch hosts' manor house. You get a rustic, open kitchen and super bathroom, and a spacious
suite above, with a wooden floor and half-timbered walls. Colours are warm, heating is electric
and staircases (inside and out) are for the sprightly. After walking to visit cider-makers and the
seaside at Trouville, return to beautiful grounds, with barbecue on request.

• €85 a night, room only, +33 2 3162 5686, bergerienormandy.com

4 Maison de Bibby, Martel, Dordogne Valley

On holiday from New Zealand, Anna fell in love with this 12th-century house, sold her art
gallery and set about renovating. She's easygoing and generous – guests can join in cooking
soups or casseroles, and she may invite locals to dine. The house is quirky, with deeply
comfortable rooms. Up winding stairs, Louis XVI chairs stand on rush-matted boards; heavy
curtains hang at ancient windows.

• €120 a night B&B, +33 5 6537 7626, sawdays.co.uk  

5 La Caloge, Crozon, Brittany

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La Caloge

On a remote peninsula, this is not quite a houseboat, but a former fishing boat in a garden. The
roof of La Caloge is thatched and the blue and white interior has polished oak flooring and a
mast in the bedroom. Cliffs and wild headlands are a minute away, watersports abound in Baie
de Douarnenez, and breakfast is at little tables in the cabin next door.

• From £85 a night B&B, 01275 395447, canopyandstars.co.uk

6 La Cabane du Perche, St Mard de Réno, Normandy

Up in the branches, on the edge of the Perche forest, this treehouse will please fans of quirky
furniture. There's room for four in a double and two bunks, one just child-size, all hand-
carved. Shower and basin are made from recycled wine barrels; the compost loo illustrates the
green ethos. Bread, milk, cheese and cider come from local farms and breakfast is served on
the terrace. There's horse riding or fun carriage rides in the forest.

• From £126 a night B&B, 01275 395447, canopyandstars.co.uk

7 La Candelaria, Verrières le Buisson, near Paris 

La Candelaria

The owners of this elegant house, an Argentine artist, an English photographer and their four
children, will be glad to introduce you to their wide-ranging interests: art and history, travel
and ancestors. They found a near-ruin and turned it into a family home full of paintings, books
and curiosities. Your third-floor room is big, beamy, slathered in little ancestral portraits and
graced by a great tin bath before the dormer window. The shower room is up two high steps
through a very low door. Wonderful, if not for the halt and lame.

• €127 a night B&B, sawdays.co.uk +33 6 7387 4035

8 La Tour, Marcilly La Gueurce, Burgundy

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The garden is full of stepping stones and flowers, ginger tabbies and views across undulating
pastures. June, widely travelled, a great reader and art lover, lives in a long stone farmhouse
amid outbuildings that date from 1740. The airy two-bedroom suite in its own wing has a fine
stone fireplace on its ground floor; floorboards are honey-coloured, the bathroom is a treat,
and breakfasts (organic jams, eggs from the hens) are served on country china.

• €70 a night B&B, +33 6 8759 7829, latourbandb.com

9 La Falotière, Rochecorbon, Loire Valley

La Falotière

A cave suite, hewn long ago into the rock beside a bell-topped presbytery, makes a spacious,
cool and light retreat. Step from private courtyard to sitting room with big fireplace and old
bread oven, wicker chairs, red lamps, tiled floors. A red-carpeted bedroom is sculpted into
whitewashed rock, with a theatrical freestanding bath. Locals and walkers, your delightful
hosts serve home-laid eggs at breakfast, enjoy sharing their shady garden and this intriguing
town, 10 minutes from Tours amid vineyards and chateaux.

• €100 a night B&B, +33 6 5065 4149, falotiere.com

10 Château La Villatade, Sallèles, Languedoc

An enormous 19th-century wine vat (where, in times past, hundreds of tons of grapes were
turned into wine) is a novel tasting room at this traditional farmhouse. Sophie and Denis invite
you to share their home and their passion for winemaking. The Forge and Walker suites are
charming, modern and immaculate, with lime-washed walls and terracotta floors, and the
grounds are idyllic: horses in the paddock, and a natural pool. Mountains, caves and gorges
wait to be explored, and Carcassonne is wonderfully close.

• €95 a night B&B, +33 4 6877 5751, villatade.com

Sawday's new Special Places to Stay: French Bed & Breakfast is on sale now, price £15.99. For
more information on the book or places featured visit sawdays.co.uk

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Topics
France holidays

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