Guest User
February 21, 2023
We hosted our wedding at Hotel Chateau de la Cote and can't say enough wonderful and gushing things about the place and the staff. First off, we want to add context to some of the other reviews we've seen. Notice how a lot of folks complain of things that they clearly should not have expected in the first place. It's a castle built in the fifteenth century! If you expect the outside to look beautiful and then the inside to be a modern Airbnb, you're setting yourself up for disappointment Yes, it's a bit musty and damp. That's the point, it's a fifteenth century castle! (And if you have great friends and family, none of them will care). Yes, sometimes lady bugs gather around some of the windows. There's ivy growing on the walls! It's real, not fake, and real ivy has real lady bugs sometimes. And it's in rural France. And it's run by a family. So no, they aren't going to bend over backwards for you. This isn't the Ritz. If you want that, go stay there. Know what you're signing up for and don't come in with ridiculous expectations or OF COURSE you will be disappointed. We knew what we wanted and we got it and it was fantastic. The castle is exquisite. Driving up the driveway, you enter into a fairytale. The grounds are well kept. The ivy on the walls is gorgeous. The countryside scenery is beautiful. The inside fits the building (though it has a few necessary modern touches that stick out). We found all the rooms comfortable and so fun, since each was unique and each guest wanted to see everyone else's room. We loved the staff, especially the folks that served us meals. They were incredibly helpful, despite having some language barriers between us. We found our way through the communication, with effort from both sides. We were able to house nearly all of our 36 guests (a few chose to stay elsewhere), and it was such a blast. We had the run of the place. It felt like a big slumber party for five days. We LOVED the food. Seriously. The Duck Confit for our wedding dinner was crispy and juicy and everything we wanted. Our guests were floored, and we have lots of foodies. Our cake blew us out of the water, especially because we didn't get to try it ahead of time. We picked two flavors and they did the rest and it was magical. The castle is also really well located to many different small towns. Brantome is a great place to spend the day. There are plenty of vineyards to visit. And you can also just spend the day roaming the grounds and playing in the castle. Olivier, the owner, is a serious yet friendly man. He does not suffer fools. He will say No to some of the things you ask because he simply isn't equipped to do it. But if it is important to you, talk to him, let him know, and see if you can come up with creative solutions together. We had to push back on some of the room choices for our wedding meal, and ultimately it was a good choice for us. He was viewing it from a different value system, but we understood each other and he understood i