Breathe deeply, let your thoughts and physique chill out, and movie for a second a Provençal panorama of lavender fields and olive groves, pine bushes and vineyards. Think about listening to chook track and the chirruping of cicadas, inhaling the scent of lavender and fragrant vegetation, and simply absorbing the environment of a protected pure atmosphere and a singular heritage village. Then think about taking a vacation there.
Positioned within the coronary heart of the Alpilles Regional Nature Park, Benvengudo is a second-generation family-run resort and restaurant set in a 4-hectare park at Les Baux-de-Provence. Count on genuine Provençal environment within the stone buildings and conventional furnishings, however with vivid fashionable décor seamlessly mixing previous and new. It truly is the most effective resort in Les Baux for an genuine, welcoming and scrumptious break.
Household-run luxurious resort and restaurant within the scented hills of Provence
With 19 rooms, 6 suites, two small cottages and a big cottage, this enchanting 4* resort meets the wants of everybody from {couples} to households. And with a swimming pool, tennis courtroom, and gastronomic restaurant, Benvengudo is the proper place to come back dwelling to after a day exploring an space that gives one sensory deal with after one other.
Perched on a rocky plateau, Les Baux – from the Provençal phrase for ‘rock’ – has been inhabited since Neolithic instances, however this extraordinary web site rose to prominence in the course of the Center Ages beneath a household claiming to be descended from King Balthazar who allegedly arrived right here after visiting the toddler Jesus.
By the 13th century, the inhabitants stood at 3000 and there was additional enlargement in the course of the Renaissance with the constructing of many grand homes, however in
1632, Les Baux was besieged by the troopers of Louis XIII and when the city fell to the king, the ramparts have been destroyed. The fort regularly fell into damage, and residents started shifting down from the excessive floor to the plain.
On the finish of the 19th century, Les-Baux-de-Provence numbered barely 400 residents, and plenty of buildings have been dismantled, the stone reused in new city communities. However after World Battle 2, the village started to draw artists, artisans and gourmets, and regularly its fame unfold. At this time Les Baux is a member of the celebrated Plus Beaux Villages de France, formally the prettiest villages in France, and is dwelling to 500 everlasting residents.
Beneath the pedestrianised streets of the hilltop neighborhood, beside the street to Arles, Benvengudo is a home-from-home for guests from all around the world. The story started in 1967 when Maryse and Daniel Beaupied launched one of many first motels within the village. Daniel labored as a Michelin-starred chef while Maryse set about furnishing their 5-bedroom property with a mixture of household furnishings and locally-sourced antiques.
Extra rooms have been added within the Nineteen Seventies plus an outside swimming pool. The couple opened a restaurant and constructed a second lodging constructing, all of the whereas enhancing their repute for luxurious rooms, heat welcome, and connoisseur meals. At this time it’s their daughter Carole and her husband Viktor who’re carrying on the household hospitality custom.
Bienvenue to Benvengudo
‘I grew up right here and have so many blissful childhood reminiscences,’ says Carole, a world lawyer who has all the time been passionate concerning the household enterprise. ‘My brother who labored alongside my dad and mom sadly died in an accident and I couldn’t bear to see them separated from a resort that meant a lot to all of us. So in 2007, my husband and I took over the operating of the enterprise so my dad and mom may retire.
‘Through the years, Benvengudo has turn out to be a spot of cultural change with guests from all around the world. They’ve given us all a lot and in return, my intention is to present them an actual expertise of the Provençal way of life, beginning with a private welcome to indicate that that is nonetheless very a lot a household dwelling. Our dishes are all the time created from high quality native produce from the Alpilles, simply as my Michelin-starred father all the time did, and the calm, elegant inside recollects my mom’s ardour for antiques.’
However while household and custom are very a lot on the coronary heart of Benvengudo, Carole has made positive that the resort has moved with the instances, fully renovating the inside while holding these irreplaceable Provençal antiques. Count on mushy furnishings in calming shades of stone with splashes of color supplied by specifically commissioned art work. Carole additionally redesigned the gardens to present friends extra choices for strolling and admiring the pure atmosphere of the resort’s personal olive grove, the rocky panorama, and the standard garrigue vegetation with its fragrant vegetation.
The restaurant too is flooded with pure gentle, bringing the surface in, regardless of the season, and the breakfast bar is irresistible (above). While the décor is as soon as once more in these signature impartial shades, the colors of Provence explode on the plates, every dish on the quick menu bursting with southern flavour and accompanied by wines from neighbouring vineyards. And the meals mile depend is even decrease with herbs grown within the resort’s personal kitchen backyard and olive oil produced from their very own olives by the Moulin Castelas lower than 5 km away. Guests who keep in early November may even participate within the olive harvest.
What to see in Les Baux de Provence and close by
Straightforward although it will be simply to chill out and take in the solar within the resort grounds, there are a number of must-do days out inside a simple drive of Benvengudo. Historic Arles on the banks of the Rhône is barely 15 km away; go to the Roman enviornment and theatre, and stroll within the footsteps of Vincent Van Gogh who created a few of his best-known work right here. You’re additionally simply 25 km from Avignon, with its well-known half-bridge and the immense pink brick Palace of the Popes.
One thing a bit extra native? There are every kind of tempting trails to discover round Les Baux on foot, bike or horseback. Or possibly play 18-holes on the Domaine de Manville, a difficult course categorised with an Ecocert label and that blends into the geology and farmland of the native countryside. And the well-known Carrières des Lumières on the foot of the village is an unmissable web site, a digital, immersive artwork venue in a former stone quarry as soon as mined by the Romans.
Then come again to your home-from-home to take a seat with an apéro by the pool, heated in spring and autumn, or possibly play a leisurely recreation of pétanque while you await dinner. That is Provence Benvengudo-style. Simply chill out and luxuriate in!
Discover out extra and e-book your keep: benvengudo.com/en
