Demeures et Châteaux Hôtel l'Hermitage

This place is located just outside of the main part of Carpentras. Was very easy to find. Our stay was quite comfortable and lady behind the desk served us great cocktails and we stayed for dinner. The food was good the drinks were better! The hotel is off the road in a very naturistic kind of setting. It was very quiet and quite relaxing!

We picked l’Hermitage, because it is within easy driving distance from Marseille airport, and we wanted to spend the first two days of our trip in this corner of Provence. I was a bit concerned as we approached the hotel, driving through some shopping and industrial areas (not what imagined), but it turned out to be ok, as the property itself is big and cozy, with old trees and a beautiful garden. There were even several chickens roaming around - pretty pastoral. And the nearby (2 km) village of Pernes les Fontaines turned out to be quite a charming old place. Our “chambre double standard” was a bit grey and drab (not the prettiest one from the pictures), but it was a quiet corner room with a pretty big terrace. A somewhat weird thing about this terrace was that it had a window to the neighboring room’s bathroom, which was always partially open - oh, well, it’s an old remodeled building. The bed was very comfortable, with an extra pair of pillows available in the closet. The bathroom was probably from the 80-s, but it had everything we needed and was very clean, so no problem. Breakfast was good, with a great selection of cold cuts, cheeses, breads and what-not. And you can have as much coffee/tea as you want, with self-service from the machine. However, dinner at the hotel turned out to be a big disappointment, although I had expected it to be great, based on many previous reviews. Well, the theme of the day of our arrival seemed to be “everything boiled”: a piece of boiled cod, a boiled potato, a boiled carrot, a piece of boiled zucchini (?!), and an unshelled boiled egg (?!) - all with aioli sauce on the side. Not what we value about French cuisine! The presentation was very creative and beautiful though - with the green of the zucchini, the orange of the carrot, the yellow of the potato and the brown of the egg, the plates looked like bright abstract paintings. But my piece of advice is to find out the menu before you reserve dinner - we were probably just unlucky as the next day, it looked like the chef was getting ready to grill something, which would be just fine. But our dinner at Au Fil du Temps in Pernes les Fontaines the next day was just amazing - not cheap, but great! But back to the hotel itself, where we really enjoyed the pool. It is a good size, very clean and pretty. The water was somewhat cold, but just fine, once you got in. On the whole, we had a good time at l’Hermitage, and I can certainly recommend it!

We had two separate stays at this hotel during our recent holiday. It’s a lovely old building set in what must have been a beautiful garden. When we first arrived the receptionist didn’t seem to know what room to allocate us and we were asked to wait with a cuppa in the lounge for over an hour with the two cats and dog who live on the premises. Eventually she said she couldn’t contact our tour operator so gave us a tiny room that couldn’t quite accomodate our luggage. Luckily there was a large verandah and well appointed bathroom. Our second stay was somewhat more comfortable in a different room with a much more comfortable bed. Good breakfast in nice setting.