Hotel le Cep, Beaune, Burgundy: where to stay

By Abigail Butcher Published: 2:04PM GMT 01 March 2010

Previous of Images Next The quiet, shaggy yard set around a 150-year-old willow tree is a good shelter Traditionally furnished bedrooms are declared after informal wines

Why Beaune?

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Often described as the booze collateral of France, Beaune is at the heart of Burgundy, simply reached from all directions. Popular with Britons en track to the south of France during the summer, or the Alps in the winter, the one of the most appropriate places in the nation to eat and drink. The pretty, walled locale has cobbled streets, no finish of places to eat and a booze businessman on each corner. It is a step as well far to expostulate for a weekend, but nonetheless the only underneath dual hours from Paris by TGV, or from Lyons if you fly, it would be a contrition not to arrive by car and batch up on internal wines.

Hotel with history

HOTEL LE CEP

LOCATION Just inside the walls of the Gothic town.

CHARACTER In the third era of family ownership, this 64-room road house comprises multiform companion buildings, the oldest of that dates from the 14th century. The road house is a maze, but has copiousness of still spots and is good fun to explore. Burgundy ash panels set opposite unprotected mill underline strongly, as do tanned hide armchairs sparse with plush velvet cushions, nap rugs on timbered floors and exuberant very old furniture.

ROOMS Traditionally furnished, and each room is particular and declared after informal wines, internal villages and grands crus. Some have four-poster beds, all have antiques. Rooms in the ultimate prolongation have some-more complicated dcor, with white Provencal sauce tables, white televisions and tiled floors.

FOOD There is an exclusively run grill adjoining the main run that facilities internal cuisine and sells 70 wines by the glass. Breakfast is served in the hotel"s caveau or in the yard in satisfactory weather, with a preference of continental or buffet, with extract squeezed from oranges whilst you wait.

WE LIKE The quiet, shaggy yard set around a 150-year-old willow tree is a good shelter in a locale buzzing with visitors.

NOT SO KEEN Large, squeezy bottles of palm and physique soap trustworthy to the wall in each lavatory reduce the tone. And small caring has been taken to mix the hotel"s practical lifts, that glass container with their Gothic surroundings.

ESSENTIALS 0033 380 223548; hotel-cep-beaune.com. Doubles from €168 (�153).

GETTING THERE

P & O Ferries (08716 645645; poferries.com) and Eurotunnel (08705 353535; eurotunnel.com) suggest every day crossings from the UK to France. Calais to Beaune is a seven-hour drive. Break up the motorways and equivocate tolls by receiving the N71 from Troyes to Dijon, followed by the N74 by the vineyards. British Airways (0844 493 0787; britishairways.co.uk) and easyJet (easyjet.co.uk) work flights to Lyons.