Le Chateau d'Audrieu

Le Chateau d'Audrieu

Normandy is one of the most historically layered regions in France and one of the most quietly beautiful. The bocage countryside of Calvados, with its hedgerow-divided fields, apple orchards, dairy farms and half-timbered villages, is the Normandy that produces the region's most celebrated foods: Camembert, Livarot and Pont-l'Évêque cheeses, calvados and cider from the apple varieties cultivated here for centuries, cream and butter and oysters from the coast. Bayeux, fifteen kilometres from Audrieu, holds the 11th-century tapestry that documents William the Conqueror's invasion of England in extraordinary and violent detail, one of the most significant surviving artefacts of medieval Europe. Caen, twelve kilometres in the other direction, is where William built his ducal seat and his abbey. The D-Day beaches of June 1944 are twenty minutes' drive north, the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer above Omaha Beach among the most affecting places in Europe to spend an hour in silence. This is a region where history is not an abstraction but something the landscape still holds, and the combination of that particular weight with the pleasures of Norman food and countryside constitutes one of the more complete arguments for a long weekend in France. The Château d'Audrieu was built in 1715 on land with origins in the 11th century, on a site associated with William the Conqueror's early Normandy, and is classified as a Historic Monument. It sits at the centre of 25 hectares of parkland and formal French gardens, its elegantly proportioned façade in pale Norman stone, its interiors restored in 2016 to reflect the early 18th-century period of its construction: period fireplaces, beds draped in silky fabrics, 18th-century-inspired furniture, a staircase and entrance hall of considerable grandeur. The 29 rooms and suites are individually designed across four categories, the best with views over the formal gardens and parkland. A treehouse cabin in the grounds, 70 square metres with its own terrace and bathtub, is the most quietly extraordinary option. The 1715 Bar, named for the year of the château's construction, is open all day for everything from petits fours to Champagne. The restaurant Le Séran, under chef Samuel Gaspar, serves Norman and French cuisine drawing directly from the estate's kitchen garden and the regional larder: Calvados and cider, local cider vinegar, roses from the garden, apples, herbs, and the seafood and dairy products of the surrounding Calvados countryside, its cellars running to 200 wines. The Sothys spa, in a converted outbuilding, handles the wellness programme alongside a heated outdoor pool in a verdant corner of the grounds. Two hours fifteen minutes from Paris. A Relais & Châteaux member. The guests are largely French, Parisian couples and families who know that Normandy is one of the most rewarding escapes from the capital, alongside the British and international visitors who combine the landing beaches and the Bayeux Tapestry with the particular pleasure of sleeping in an 18th-century château in apple country. It is a hotel for those who understand that the best version of a Norman weekend involves a long dinner, a morning walk through the formal gardens, and absolutely no rush. The short version: An 18th-century Historic Monument in 25 hectares of formal French gardens and parkland between Caen and Bayeux, 29 individually designed rooms and suites, a treehouse cabin in the grounds, and restaurant Le Séran serving Norman cuisine from the estate's kitchen garden. Sothys spa, heated outdoor pool, the Bayeux Tapestry fifteen minutes away, the D-Day beaches twenty. Relais & Châteaux. Two hours fifteen from Paris. The essential Normandy château address.