Near the historic French town of Amboise, lovers of history and of beauty itself may find themselves welcome at Château Louise de La Vallière, an imaginative and immersive boutique hotel experience set in the seventeenth century.
In the court of the Sun King, there once emerged a beauty named Louise. Quickly catching His Majesty’s eye, she became Louis XIV’s first official mistress, and the one who loved him—not his crown—with a devoted and modest heart.
At a sixteenth-century château where the young Louise de La Vallière roamed long ago, there is now a haven of hospitality for those who are enamored with the beauty of the French court in its golden age. The project of a lifetime for proprietor Mira Grebenstein, Château Louise de La Vallière sits as a reawakening of the Renaissance spirit and a window to the age of French royalty in all its splendor.
Opening its doors to guests in 2022, the boutique hotel boasts twenty rooms. Each suite reflects the sensibilities and style of one of these figures from the court, from Diane de Poitiers and Marie-Antoinette to Joséphine Bonaparte and, of course, the eponymous Louise Françoise de La Baume le Blanc, duchess de La Vallière.
L’Amphitryon, the Château’s main restaurant, is staffed by servers dressed in period attire. The grounds offer further pleasantries, as the château is nestled in 15 hectares of protected woodland, where deer and other wildlife roam freely around the estate. Vast parkland kisses the property with color, while a French orchard and formal garden combine the rambling allure of nature with the masterful design of man. Here, amid the fragrance of two hundred ‘Madame de La Vallière’ rosebushes, one can be certain that for as long as the romance of this royal age continues to inspire, the legend of Louise will never be lost to time.
Text Leslie Bennett Smith
Photography Stephanie Welbourne Steele
Styling Melissa Sturdivant Smith
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