Review: The Stables, Chateau de la Fuye, Chinon, France

It’s the Versailles of lodgings.

In the shadow of the 15th century Château de La Fuye There is a romantic tower for two and a luxurious three-bedroom gite sleeping six people. Imaginatively transformed from the château’s former stables, this historic and elegant self-catering gîte captures the very essence of the Loire.

Dressed in white tuffeau stone, so typical of Loire castles, the interior design of the gîte dressed in roses recalls aristocratic elegance. Booking the tower and lodge is a popular option for family or friends reunions looking to accommodate eight people.

But Château de la Fuye is as much a state of mind, a blissful escape to a French idyll, as it is a physical place of silver candelabras, remarkable mirrors and Kashmiri carpets.

Superhost owners Rowena and Simon Michaels searched the salerooms for antiques and textures to bring a warm Cotswolds feel to a quintessential French scene. For them, as they worked on their project, it was more “A decade in Touraine” than “A year in Provence”.

On the gallery-like walls, the art moves from heavy oils reminiscent of old masters to lighter watercolors to contemporary avant-garde. Imagine an eclectic Soho House look exported to Touraine.

Set within a 10-acre truffle orchard consisting of approximately 800 oak trees, five acres of private woodland and walled gardens, La Fuye is a rural retreat for songbirds.

However, it is indisputable that the greatest charms of La Fuye are underground. Black gold. At the end of autumn, dogs sniff out truffles heading to the best Parisian restaurants.

Home

Marie, the guardian of La Fuye, lit a fire for us and prepared a welcome basket for us. A baguette, cheese, a tasting pot of La Fuye honey, eggs picked at the estate, a beautiful bottle of red and an impeccably layered iced pear tart.

Everything has been thought of: butter, milk, Nespresso coffee capsules, balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil… even the dishwasher pods.

The bedrooms

The beds in all three bedrooms are adorned with fine linens. The walls of a king double, double and twin bedroom are decorated with vintage canvases and fabrics.

Each room has a desk. Super-fast optical Wi-Fi makes this an idyllic WFH (Work from Holiday) destination.

The bathrooms

Two bathrooms are equipped with Lefroy Brooks showers, Bioderma products and fine Scottish soaps.

The installations

Dark olive green cabinets, in the ultimate farmhouse kitchen, hold everything you need to cook, bake and create. Even a row of cookbooks, if you need some inspiration before reaching for the retro red Kitchen Aid.

Above the reclaimed tiles on the floor, with shades of terracotta patinated by the centuries, is a chef’s paradise. An opportunity to work with food and wine from local bakeries, butchers, cheese shops, markets, pastries and vineyards, all within a 10 kilometer radius. La Fuye is a gourmet paradise.

Through the kitchen door, a half-timbered loggia accommodates a large outdoor table for eight, alongside a barbecue. Beyond the loggia is a pétanque court framed by lavender. This leads to a pretty wildflower meadow bordered by the old stone boundary wall, rich with tender espalier fruit trees, including apricots and peaches, and vines which have been trained above a old oak entrance door to the truffle orchard.

In spring, it’s time to head to the lounge chairs around the pool or play a game of croquet.

The location

La Fuye, one of around 300 châteaux dotted across the Loire and its tributaries, is strategically placed for exploring one of France’s favorite regions.

A seven-minute drive will take you to Chinon. On the banks of the Vienne, an imposing black statue reminds visitors that 16th-century Rabelais is the city’s humanist poster child. A prose writer full of wit and satire who oscillated between the pious and the anticlerical.

Take a half-hour drive to feel the weight of history at L’Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud, the final resting place of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II and Richard the Lionheart. Stripped of its riches and its furniture by the French Revolution, Fontevraud became a prison before its final restoration into a large abbey. For a spectacular day out, purchase a combo ticket to the abbey and its strikingly modern art gallery.

Usse, with its fairytale towers, is the closest castle to La Fuye. Azay-le-Rideau, its grandeur reflected in the mirror of a lake, once the home of Catherine de Medici, embodies the influences of the Renaissance. While Villandry offers the finest example of vast French gardens. Anecdote, its owners once owned the Château de La Fuye for weekend getaways.

Or for the ultimate day trip, combining car and train, reach Paris in around 90 minutes.

Other Nice Touches

If you have taken the tower as well as the gîte, there are tables for eight people in the kitchen, in the living room and under the loggia as well. The kitchen with dedicated drawers for wooden spoons and kitchen knives has everything you need, from espresso cups to a nutcracker, forks for snails and of course a truffle razor.

Customers can purchase local organic wines, in a basket including a Chinon pink, a Vouvray white, something sparkling, as well as a Béatrice and Pascal Lambert Les Terrasses red. This is accompanied by opulent notes of red summer fruits.

There is always someone to help you. If Rowena and Simon, who sometimes live in the neighboring seven-bedroom chateau, are not in residence, then La Fuye’s caretakers, Marie and Des, are on hand.

The cost

For a typical stay in a gîte for October 2024, minimum stay of two nights, prices start from €375 per night.

While the Tower, available for single night stays, starts from €130 per night.

The best piece

In La Fuye, truffle hunting, an adrenaline-filled lottery to find the black gold that could be worth €2,000 per kilo, becomes a dramatic spectacle sport between November and January.

Even after working the land, coupled with laborious pruning, truffle prospecting is still more a matter of chance than science. Three generations of ladies arrive early in the morning with their dogs to sniff out the truffles growing among the roots of the oak trees. There is no rhyme or reason to the arrival of the ladies. Neither if nor where the truffles will be found.

The final verdict

Château de la Fuye is the ultimate French getaway, set in a bucolic landscape of rivers, vineyards and woods. Whether guests explore by bike, car, traditional flat-bottomed boat, kayak or are guided through the wine terroir by a private guide, the Loire is magically irresistible.

This is an ultra-stylish retreat, whether for a fun long weekend, a week’s vacation, or a longer stay as a digital nomad.

Disclosure: Our stay was sponsored by Château de La Fuye.

Michael Edwards

Michael Edwards is a travel writer from Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. Although Michael published his first travel articles nearly four decades ago, he continues to find new luxury destinations to visit and write about.