Smith reviews: vaulted mod-convent Le Couvent d’Hérépian in the South of France
Posted by Lucy on November 18th, 2008
Every time we publish a new hotel review on Mr & Mrs Smith, we’ll let you know here on the Smith Travel Blog, so you can keep pace with our team of travel spies and style insiders on their global roams. We visit every boutique hotel, country guesthouse, chic beach hut and luxury stay in our hand-picked hotel collection, and we get every one anonymously reviewed by a real-life couple. Their mission, should they choose to accept it, is to check in anonymously, have a rip-roaring, chandelier-swinging, fireside-lounging, beach-strolling, bed-testing, bathroom-assessing time and then report back to us with total candour in a no-holds-barred hotel review.
Here’s a brief snippet from the latest Mr & Mrs Smith stay at Le Couvent d’Hérépian, a gorgeously restored 17th-century convent (pictured above) in Languedoc-Roussillon (one of my favourite parts of the world)…
It is perhaps in adversity that a hotel has chance to show its true colours, and I feel we can reliably vouch for Le Couvent d’Hérépian. After a sweat-soaked, infuriating few hours spent beside a broken-down hire car and an afternoon of golden sunshine wasted in trilingual negotiations at a garage, our final resting place needed to be pretty special if our moods were to be lifted. First impressions of Le Couvent were good: an austere 17th-century facade gave way to a fairytale castle-like interior, filled with chandeliers and candlelit stone staircases, and the whole building was somehow enveloped in a delicious chocolatey fragrance. The bar, lounge and suites were stylishly and comfortably kitted out, and the pre-stocked, in-room iPods were a great touch. I came to particularly appreciate the honesty bar, when, after our day of automotive tribulation, I was able to storm in and dilute my frustration with alcohol, without having to make small talk with bar staff or sit around looking pleadingly at passing waiters…
You can read the full review now (and find out who the anonymous reviewer was!) on the Mr & Mrs Smith travel website…
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