Full disclosure.
Once you experience any triad of the Domaine & Demeure collective, you are a bit of a changed traveller. Three separate sleeping giants, reawakened. Each a private wine estate, restored and regaled in the most tasteful of tones and touches, an impeccable style and an unrelenting reverence, the gold standard of customer kindness, resulting in an unfathomably special place to vacation. I had experienced two of their three chateaux, an assemblage of authentic French ambiance and a pristinely preserved production of historical architecture and modern luxury, with my friend and my sister in the fall of 2024. It was my family who helped me complete the trifecta, this summer, at Chateau Les Carrasses.
Nestled inside the roving rows of flowering fields beyond the eternity of vines, this 19th century wine domain is pebbled pathways, sprawling sun saturated windows overlooking poetic patios shaded by vine winded pergolas, fountains, an infinity pool overlooking forever greens, surrounded by sun beds and parasols, and scenery so spectacular that catching your breath becomes a regular rite of passage. Market umbrellas mingle with crystal chandeliers, ancient olive trees cradle and canopy, and accommodations range from one of the eleven exquisitely designed chateau studios, to nineteen private villas, housing up to eight.
The villas.
With their private terraces, gracious gardens, heated pools and oversized loungers, they manage to take whatever French fantasy exists in that magnificent mind of yours, and elevate it. The décor marries modern upscale with a fine-tuned French palate and a southern Franc quintessence, a finesse and a finish that inspire in all the most understated ways. Architecture on par with interiors, sunlight and the softest neutrals. Dove greys, stone blues, chunky blankets and Cinq Mondes amenities. Rustic beams, iron hardware, French relics and windows that welcome the wash of fresh air. Regularly refilled still and sparkling water in the fridge. An aromatic bliss unique to Les Carrasses. Our two-story villa gave each of us not just our own expansive bedroom, but each our own bathroom as well. Such spaciousness, with family travel, is an undeniable dream.
On brand, the much-accoladed restaurant flaunts a phenomenal menu of foie gras to black truffle puff pastry, smoked vanilla ice cream and whiskey sorbet. Produce, herbs, and all that grows from the ground is sourced directly and entirely from their kitchen farm just up the hill (you can visit it, or pass it on your way to the spa, we’ll get there). Following drinks on the upper terrace overlooking the valley, we dined on the main terrace at golden hour, with the Mediterranean sun dipping down beyond the cypress. I began with the green vegetable tartlet with ricotta, moved onto the shellfish conchiglioni, and finished with the strawberry and rhubarb variation, vanilla and gingerbread cream, basilic and yuzu sorbet. And alongside, many sparkling glasses clinked of buttery, beautiful vintages.
The service is as special as the cuisine, and it is hard to not feel like you’re having a quintessentially French experience enveloped in it all. The restaurant is open to residents and non-residents, so make those reservations and enjoy what many travel specifically to enjoy.
And the little treatment spa.
Just getting there is a meditation. A private ride up into the pine forest, past the little farm, through the kitchen garden (supplying 100% of the produce you dined on the night before), you’ll arrive at Le Mazet. Formerly a rustic place of repose, this tranquillity cabin, a petite mountaintop stone house, has been repurposed for our spa experiential pleasure. Here, steeped within the vines, facials, massages, and body treatments are enjoyed to the backdrop of birdsong (and depending on season, a chorus of cicadas). Emmanuelle, with her delicate demeanor and superior skillset, treated us each with an hour massage, phenomenal on all fronts, the first of its kind for both my daughters. Who are now likely ruined for life.
Breakfast is a gorgeous sprawl of traditional French provisions. Baguettes and brie, Bonne Maman and yogurts, granolas, stone fruits, and eggs made to order, can be enjoyed inside the restaurant, or under the towering trees beside the gleaming greenhouse (designed by Gustave Eiffel, you may be familiar with his other work in a neighboring city). The views and vistas and sensory concord are quite literally, nonstop.
And the location, which you’ll struggle leaving because honestly who ever would elect to do so, makes it magnificently easy to day trip.
We began with an al fresco breakfast beneath the trees, and moved onto the little farm, where we made multiple farm friends, including Gaston the cow and those glorious chickens, geese, goats, lambs, ponies and Plum and Cinnamon the farm puppies. Another place we could have hung all day. The organic garden expands immediately next to it.
We moved onto a walking wine tour, where Lise guided us through the vines, landing lavishly in a tasting built for families. Chardonnay, cabernet, and merlot grape juice for the under 18 set, and a wine tasting for rest. Sipping something so sumptuous around noon. Ah, but when in France.
From the Les Carrasses vineyards we headed to the beach, La Serignan Plage, a lovely locals beach where the Mediterranean provides a bathtub temperature that was far and away the most cradling and comforting any of us had ever experienced. Clear, clean, and so very gentle, I could swim those waters forever I’m farily sure.
But we craved a hit of shopping so we headed to Narbonne from there, where we scored some vintage frocks and ice cream. Walking those stone paved streets beneath those blue shutters is a village daydream come true.
We retuned to our villa so we could shower before dinner, with one more adventure left in the day. We made our way through the flanking cypress, past the winding Plane Tree roads, way up the mountains and over the bridge to Roquebrun, a little mountain top town with tear inducing views. Dinner overlooking it all, at Let Petite Nice.
All is so easy in a day here, but sincerely, a day spent not moving from the property is indelibly decadent, which is why I recommend as many as you can possibly allow.
But it is the graciousness. The graciousness is the thing that lingers long past the last goodbye. The complete and utter absence of arrogance. The help and hope to make your stay as enjoyable and tailored to your wants as possible. So rare for a destination of this calibre to be graced with such ease and human generosity.
Located in the Languedoc region of southern France, a region associated with wine and sunshine and seaside along the Mediterranean; cypresses, olive trees, varietals of vines and vegetation, the Chateau Les Carrasses speaks to it all. And this is by no mistake. Visionaries Karl O’Hanlon and Anita Forte ever intentionally created a blissful coexistence between nature and humanity and heritage; rewriting the book on laid back luxury vacating. The lambs and ponies and goats and geese and Gaston the Cow in the little farm. The sprawling rows of herbs, vegetables, and fruit growing wild in the kitchen garden, gleaning Thomas Keller goals. The complimentary bikes, the integration and prioritization of hiring locally, and the ethos of social and environmental stewardship is ever present. And the exquisitely honed vision of spaciously vacating with family in a hermitage so magnificent, a rural retreat providing the ease of a summer home, the splendour of an impeccably preserved working wine estate, is remarkably, idyllically realized, at Chateau Les Carrasses. I cannot recommend it any higher.
