Our Accommodation from Saturday 22nd to Tuesday 25th April 2017.

After Belcastel we took a fairly long and, as it turned out, eventful journey to our next accommodation.  A minor missed turning meant that we ended up travelling through the beautiful, historic Sainte-Eulalie-d’Olt, the next town along from where we were staying.

Unfortunately, I was the one driving and had the unenviable task of trying to navigate (using the spiteful wench of a sat nav) through the smallest of cobbled streets.  She (sat nav) seemed to think that roads, a mere hand-span wider than our vehicle, are perfectly passable.  These narrow two-way streets often ended in a 90-degree turn on to yet another narrow street.  Narrow roads don’t normally bother me when I’m driving in Ireland, but in France, I found them nerve-racking, maybe because I was driving an unfamiliar hire car and didn’t want to lose my deposit!?  To both our amazement, we managed to squeeze through and were heartily pleased when we arrived at our next accommodation, ‘Chateau de la Falque’ in Saint-Geniez-d’Olt.

 Chateau de la Falque in Saint-Geniez-d’Olt, France. 

Nestled between Saint-Geniez-d’Olt and Sainte-Eulalie-d’Olt, we seemed to have this beautiful, golden spa hotel pretty much to ourselves!  I’d have like to have learned more about the property but my French is none existent so I couldn’t ask the French-speaking receptionist for information but on my return, I spotted the following bit of info.

“Occupying a stone convent dating from the 17th century, this refined boutique hotel sits on 5 acres of parkland. It’s 1.7 km from Saint-Geniez-d’Olt village and 5.3 km from Parc naturel régional des Grands Causses.

A spa features a sauna, a whirlpool and a steam room, plus massages and treatments. There’s also a quaint courtyard and a chapel. ” 

The convent and its small complex of surrounding buildings were beautifully restored and walking through the stone archway to the inner courtyard made me feel very privileged.

The above image and the next two photos below are from the accommodations own website.  If you click on any of these images, they’ll take you directly to their website.

The room was larger than expected and decorated in a pseudo-Chinese style with a great bathroom and the added bonus of a seating area.  As we were on a tight budget we used to pull the table over to the couch to eat breakfast and make up our packed-lunches before leaving for the day.  Living the high life, eh?  😀

The style of the room wasn’t really to my taste but it was large, clean and very comfortable for our three-night stay.   I only took a few snaps from inside the room but they were blurry, hence me using the hotels own photos.

The exterior of the building was definitely to my liking. It really was beautiful and a pleasure to return to at the end of a tiring day’s travels.  At night it looked particularly stunning and if we hadn’t been so tired each night, we’d have sat out in the inner courtyard with a bottle of red, but all we wanted to do when we got back, was sleep.

We were surrounded by fields but only a short drive away from two towns.  There was an Intermarché with a petrol station within 5 minutes drive.

Each morning we woke to the sound of cow bells as the cattle came in for milking and in the evenings we were serenaded to sleep by the soothing mating calls of crickets. Perfect!

As for the town of Saint-Geniez-d’Olt, neither of us were particularly enamoured by it but in all fairness, we had been spoiled by some of the places we’d been lucky enough to visit prior to arriving here.  Having said that, the accommodation was wonderful and made a great base to visit some really special and beautiful villages and countryside nearby.

There was a spa at the hotel but we didn’t go in.  We had intended on doing so but didn’t have the time in the end, plus it was quite pricey.

There was only one minor negative to this property and that was the view out of our window, it overlooked an industrial estate of sorts.  This was the only negative detail I could point out but it still wouldn’t stop me from staying here again, in the future.

The cost for the 3-night stay was €270 + taxes for the 2 of us, making it €45 per person, per night.   We didn’t eat breakfast at the property but it was available for a fee.

Below are three little video clips.  Again I apologise for how bad they are, I was using my phone and had/have a bad knee causing me to limp, hence the jerkiness of the clips.

Thanks to Amanda for her contribution.  All photos are the property of myself or Amanda unless otherwise stated.