CULTURE ❘ HOTELS WITH HISTORY
Clockwise from top left:
View from a bedroom window at the Demeure de la Vignole; Fontevraud Abbey, which some consider to have been the birthplace of feminism in France; inside the abbey today; a bathroom at the Demeure
de la Vignole; (inset) the tomb of Eleanor of Aquitaine
had been “stolen by Napoleon” and he felt obliged to return it to Italy. He used his employment at the Louvre to gain the necessary inside information before audaciously swiping the work and, apparently, briefl y hiding it in the hotel. He was fi nally caught after he offered it to an art dealer in Florence. Regarded as a hero in Italy, this self-fashioned gangster of the art world received a lenient sentence, but the hotel, with its Mona Lisa-themed rooms, will be forever legendary. For those wishing to see the painting, it is a mere 650 yards away in the Louvre! Another location of Italian-infl uenced infamy is the Hôtel Prince de Galles, the Art Deco residence where the French singer and actress Dalida once attempted suicide in imitation of her tragic lover Luigi Tenco.
QUIRKY GEMS
Of course, not all historic French hotels are Palaces, or located in Paris. There are some quirky gems which might lack associations with celebrities, socialites and politicians, but are equally worthy of mention. For example, on the less glamorous, ‘wild west’ side of the Loire Valley, away from the opulent châteaux and clichés of wealth, are cave hotels like Les Hautes Roches, where monks once hid to escape persecution in the Wars of Religion. Nearby, an epic 17th-century residence known as Demeure de la Vignole also offers the opportunity to stay in a cave house carved into the rock, with mod-cons such as phone and internet connections cunningly constructed within the rock face, some of which itself dates back a hundred million years. In terms of prehistorical experiences, it rarely gets better. Beyond this, local troglodyte zoos, where animals inhabit open-plan quarries, plus underground wineries, mushroom caves, silkworm farms and even an apple-drying museum all help to explain the region’s past. An experience like this reveals the roots of the Loire Valley’s communities.
96 ❘ FRANCE TODAY Apr/May 2020
“THE NUNS’ QUARTERS WERE LARGER AND MORE ATTRACTIVE THAN THE MONKS’, WHICH WAS UNHEARD OF IN THAT ERA”
Finally, a mere few miles from here lies perhaps the most atmospheric experience of all: the opportunity to stay overnight in the grounds of the legendary Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud. This was the fi rst abbey in France to be run entirely by women and is therefore held by some to be the place where feminism fi rst began in the country. The nuns’ quarters were larger and more attractive than those of the monks, which was unheard of in that era. The community isolated themselves from the non-believing outside world by becoming self-suffi cient, with their own water supply and windmills, plus self-run bakeries and vegetable gardens. The abbey still houses the graves of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Richard the Lionheart. Her tomb is placed higher than his as a signature of female dominance, and her fi gurine holds a book as a symbol of her literacy.
The abbey also has a controversial history as a prison, where prisoners of war were forced to work long hours in total silence, forbidden from communication as a psychological torture technique. Jean Genet was once imprisoned here, and this was where he wrote his novel Miracle of the Rose. A stay here enables you to prowl the abbey after hours, once the day visitors have disappeared, and feel the impact of hundreds of years of history.
The hotels here present a starting point for an extraordinary historical journey that no guest is ever likely to forget. FT
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