Château-monastère de la Corroirie — Hotel in Loches

Most of us will never get to experience living in a French chateau, so an opportunity to spend a night in a building oozing historical charm is almost too good to miss. The property is rustic, set in grounds that are partly wild and partly tended vegetable gardens, along with lovely climbing roses and pretty flowering trees and a moat filled with bull-rushes. There are also colourful bee hives, producing honey - which I think it is possible to purchase. But the setting is certainly not manicured or perfect, and that is part of its charm. There are I believe five rooms available to guests and we were in the 'Cardinale', a huge room with double aspect windows and a very grand and comfortable bed. The bathroom was delightful, everywhere very clean, with lots of fluffy white towels and a great shower.||Guests are free to make use of the large sitting room filled with lovely art works and interesting antiques and furnishings and there is also a charming room with tapestries on the wall [although as we only stayed one night we were unable to spend any time in these]. A simple breakfast is served in a pleasant dining room by the host/ owner, an informal and laid back affair by an informal and laid back guy. The adjacent 13th century monastery/church is fascinating and one can appreciate what a huge and important task it is to conserve these ancient buildings. If I had one criticism it was that our host was a little reserved and although we would have loved to know more about the history of the buildings and the activities which take place there [arts, music and the on-going restoration etc] we didn't feel he wanted to engage with us. Probably our fault because we don't speak very much French. The property is about a 15 minute drive from the charming town of Loches, which offers a good choice of restaurants and shops. We were there on a Monday night and only a couple of places were open but none- the- less the place we chose gave us a good dinner. It was amazing to return to the property and marvel at the complete peace and quiet and total blackness, great for...

I typically do not leave bad reviews but feel it is an obligation in this case.

Upon arrival (18:30) at the Corroirie we were welcomed by two people (one being the owner) who quite clearly had been drinking. I would go as far to say that they were drunk. There is a vodka distillery on site. One of the two was drenched in "water", which I now believe was perhaps vodka.

The following 20 minutes were the most bizarre I have ever experienced in an establishment. Jokes about our "bathing nude in front of the lawn", how hilarious the "industrial breakfast they would be serving the next day", going on about "how we were all going to be friends over the next few days" were unprofessional, far too intimate and honestly very strange. This "room tour" was followed by an unsolicited tour of the salon, wherein the state of inebriation impeded the owner from following his train of thought and we were told of his great grandmother being telekinetic.

The whole experience felt very eerie and scary. The Corroirie also gives the impression of being abandoned upon arrival.

Jokes were made about a Swiss couple who had arrived the day before us (they had booked for 4 nights) and who left after one night without giving a reason why.

It is not surprising that they left. We did the same as soon as we got the chance. This is the first time I have ever left an establishment upon arrival. We were so uncomfortable with the situation that we did not feel secure to tell them we would not be staying there until after having left.

We were the only guests who were supposed to be staying there with the owner and his colleague. We were too uncomfortable to spend the night with them.

I cannot recommend staying at this...

So we thought this place looked ok, although a tad more expensive than we usually pay. On arrival a rather laid back unkempt 'gentleman' appeared and showed us the rooms for breakfast, dinner etc and to our room, which was a very nice room with a free standing bath tub and seprate shower and loo. There were three large windows which overlooked the grounds. Unfortunately nothing has been done in the way of upkeep of the grounds apart from a small veg garden. There is an interesting old church in the grounds which you can explore. We had booked to have dinner on both of the two night we were staying and the first nights meal was good, but not great, for the price!. Breakfast in the morning was ok. Again not great. I fear we were spoiled by our previous accommodation which had lacked a bit in the room department, but the dinner and breakfasts were really good! So the second night we prepare for our dinner and go to the appointed room only to find the table laid for four people, for breakfast. We then attempted to find someone to ask about our dinner only to find that we appeared to be the only people in the place! We then had to do a quick change and head off out in the car to the nearest place where we could get a meal, which luckily we did, although it was pretty basic stuff. Not what you expect when you have booked the meal with the accommodation! All in all I find this an expensive stop for what you get. Our previous place was much better overall, and a lot less money! Previous stop was...