How much can you celebrate your husband’s birthday? Never enough! After an indulgent lunch at the Grand Dolder Hotel Restaurant in Zurich, we decided to take advantage from our trip to my mother in law in Nancy, east of France, so we could leave the children with her overnight and spend some quality time as a couple.

 

We looked for a Relais et Chateaux and found Chateau d’Adomenil, less than half an hour away from Nancy. That’s only 3 hours drive from Zurich which is great for Swiss residents who want to enjoy the luxury of a Relais and Chateaux at French prices and not the Swiss ones (see the Bill section below).

What did we like? Everything!!! Here’s what we experienced:

Superb service

When you arrive, the valet greets you and, we were very lucky that day, we got upgraded to the Sorbier Grand Apartment with fireplace a balcony and spa bath (345 euros/ night) instead fo the Duplex we had originally booked (275 euro/night).

The only issue was that there were ants in the bathroom but the Maitre d’Hotel came back very quickly to fix that up and brought us complimentary welcome cocktails that we then sipped by the fire with the homemade cake they had prepared before we arrived. There were beautiful green apples too, but hey, too healthy, right?

Spacious rooms

With the upgrade we had a such a big apartment we could use the whole space! The fireplace was definitely the highlight of the room. It was nicely warming the the atmosphere while bringing this comforting smoke and smell.

The bed was very soft, too soft to my husband’s taste but I slept really well, we even slept in until 9am (no kids effect I suppose).

There were separate toilets, with a heater! The bathroom was a bit old with memories of a previous time where it wasn’t that fancy yet (old hair dryer hanging there). The amenities were Bvlgary including Bath tea: a tea bag containing bath powder releasing a creamy texture in the water and their fresh fragrant of white tea.

There was a desk area, three large windows with balcony and heater under the window. That was he perfect spot for me to sit, enjoy the view and get the best wifi connexion 😉

Since pictures can tell a thousand words, here you are…3,000 words!

 

One Michelin star restaurant (which deserves one or two more)

There were only 3 other tables in our section of the room. Two couples and a family with 3 children all mega well behaved. The youngest one was probably 7 as he was reading quietly while waiting for his food. He got surprised with fairy floss (barbe a papa) for dessert, how fun! Then his mum took him to bed around 9.30pm and joined back the rest of the table to finish their meal. So smooth!

The decor is warm with velvets and thick curtains, a chandelier, old paintings in their gilded frames but with a modern twist with pots of orchid flowers and stripy armchairs and flower like lamps in the room next door.

 

Food wise, the reason why we choose this place was because we had a sneak peek at their dinner degustation menu, Menu Impression, and it was gathering all what I liked the most: scampi, araignee de mer (sea spider?), foie gras etc…

However how disappointed when we arrived and the menu had changed! One star chef Cyril Leclerc goes with seasonal produces. But once again, the service was superb and they were able to bring back some of the seafood I liked to replace the Asparagus which I found a little bit more boring (veggie!).

Similarly when the foie gras came out, it was seared. My husband finds it too rich, he always gives me his dish (I know I’m lucky). So he then went to the toilet while I was enjoying my two plates 😉 . The waiter arrived panicked noticing “Monsieur is gone? We need to make sure his plate does not get cold? And I explained he was not a fan of seared foie gras and that I’d have it”. When hubby came back, the waiters were placing a new set of cutlery for him and announced that something else had already been ordered to replace the dish he disliked and they brought a big fat juicy scallop for him!

So here you go again, food porn!

The sommelier wasn’t my husband’s favourite either. He wasn’t very classy, probably on the loud side. I found him approachable and easy going. He was ok when recommending one glass of wine I could drink with all the courses of the dinner menu.

Hearty Breakfast

Last time we visited a Relais and Chateaux, we did the faux pas to start helping ourselves at breakfast. No no! we don’t do that here, everything is brought to you at the table: in the right order with fruits first! The fresh strawberries were so fragrant and sweet!

Another classic at fancy restaurant is Beurre Bordier (butter).

The Bill

When we made the booking, we were disappointed that the package for accommodation and dinner is exactly the same as taking each item separately, but we were still keen on the whole thing. Turns out they upgraded us, perhaps because they could sense that we were expecting a bit more from staying both for dinner, night and breakfast.

So all up it was: 583 euros for the week end away for two, broken down as follows:

• 275 euros for the room
• 130 euros each for the Menu Impression
• 24 euros per person for breakfast

Plus a nice gift at check-out in their beautiful branded paper bag: some madeleine cakes with gold decoration for the road (they were sugar coated, too sweet!). Just like La Lameloise*** where they had added extra bottles of mineral water to help with the journey back home.

Would we go back? For sure!!!

 

Linking to #All aBout France Link-up hosted by the gorgeous Phoebe