Château De La Bûcherie — Hotel in Pontoise

Avoid. At least for a year or two whilst they finish/fix the renovations. This is not a hotel. It is run like a hostel. No reception or assistance 8pm-8am except in an "emergency". No kitchen to get food or tended bar (unless you pay €35pp for “plats froides” (i.e. ham/cheese)). Friendly staff but they are limited in what they can do for you. In fairness, it is a beautiful chateau and grounds. Several lounges, a games room, big fires (not on when we were here), large outside (uncovered) terrace. The room we had (a junior) was spacious. BUT the rest and the detail is a disaster. It is clear that corners have been cut with the renovation and cheap fixtures used when trying to get rooms ready for guests. It's all got an attitude of "that'll do". The WiFi is good if you're in the hallway, forget it if you're in your bedroom or in the breakfast room. And the general internet signal isn't great here. Don't bother staying here Mon-Weds. Almost everywhere around is closed so you'll struggle to find elsewhere for meals, and the hotel restaurant is closed Mon and Tues. The breakfast is available daily but is not good if you have any allergies at all, even if you give them advanced notification they don't bother to get in any alternative items for you. You have to bring your own gluten free bread and still pay the €18pp. There is nobody to greet you or show you what's what, there's no ambient music and the room echoes. For everyone who doesn't have allergies, the breakfast is pretty thin: two types of ham and cheese, yoghurt, pastries and bread, overripe apples & pears, the kitchen can make fried or boiled eggs. There is coffee and tea, and a from-concentrate juice (only one, mind). Nothing else cooked and no other hot items. Oh, and it's only served until 9.30am and you'll be joined by ants on the table (more on that below). The bathroom of our room was an absolute disaster. At first glance it looks impressive: gold taps, bath, rainfall shower. But then you realise they've put the bath tap on the wall at the end your head is supposed to be, and the bath tilts downwards towards the drain end, so you can't actually use the bath as a bath (trust me, I tried, it did not go well). There's no shower curtain so taking a standing up shower means the floor becomes a pond. Thankfully we'd asked for other towels (because one provided had holes and stains on it) so we had spares which we used to cover the floor afterwards. It’s dangerous! The water also flowed into the open closet where our suitcases were. Great. When we raised this with the staff, there was not a single expression of surprise. Everyone seems to know this is a problem, but the rooms are still being allocated. We were offered two alternative rooms. Unfortunately, the first was next to a room with ongoing renovation & associated noise. The other had the same problem - no shower curtain. Not worth the hassle of changing. We also returned to our room to find that the GF bread I'd had to bring with me had attracted ants. There were hundreds of them EVERYWHERE in the room – bags, curtains, bed, everything. We got rid of the bread but they came back in the morning. When we mentioned the ants to the staff there was again no expression of surprise at all. We decided we couldn't stay another night and checked out early to return home (no resistance from the staff). There's no point going into detail on all the other flaws with the place (no air-con, exposed pipes with constant heat & hum, windows you can't keep open, inability to keep any food or drink in your room (no fridge & the ants), or get anything from the Chateau either, no ice in the self-serve bar, the list goes on). I had a much longer feedback post but the poor renovations, the poor design, the absence of a proper hotel experience and the obvious ant infestation is sufficient to say please do not stay here. There's lots of other places closeby: go elsewhere. At least for a couple of years whilst they sort out these dreadful...

First the good things. Desk staff very welcoming and friendly. Facilities on the ground floor layout explained and where breakfast dining room located and where restaurant located within the grounds. Room itself clean and tidy, large, kingsize bed, comfortable, no TV but this is mentioned on the website when booking. Excellent wifi. Grounds really nice, staff provided a map of the grounds. Breakfast excellent, one of the best I've experienced. Very good choice, suitable for all tastes, Everything from sweet items though to hams, smoked salmon etc. You can boil eggs to your exact requirements and even ask for scrambled or fried egss to go with the bacon and sausages if you wish. |The not so good are a succession of small, niggling things. First no cup/glass in the bathroom even though there was a holder located above the sink. Also the location of the towels in the shower area was out of reach of my wife as they were high up. Fortunately within my reach as I'm 1.85 m tall. No coffee/hot drink facilities in the room, just 2 glasses and a bottle of what I would call "Designer" labelled water. The coffee machine in the breakfast dining room was excellent but this was not accessible outside of breakfast, instead there was a very basic coffee machine in the "Honesty" bar area but almost seemed like an afterthought. Basically if you wanted a coffee during the day you had to go there to help yourself, not impressed for an establishment of this class. They need to either have a similar maching in the Honesty bar area or make the Breakfast room one available during the day. Reception closes at 8pm, somewhat early I would have thought again for a hotel of this calibre. Finally the bed, whilst comfortable the mattress was showing signs of age at the edges where you could feel that the support was not as firm as it should be when sitting on the edge.||Did not try the attached restaurant so cannot comment.||So overall I found the small items somewhat detracting from what would have been an otherwise very good...

The location of the chateau was perfect for us for a next day departure from Charles de Gaul airport, only an hour's drive away yet feeling like deep in the countryside. The property and buildings are stunning, and the facilities overall are very high quality. There are lovely salons to sit in and a beautiful outdoor terrace with a gorgeous countryside view.

Unfortunately, our visit was plagued with maintenance issues, from no running water on arrival, to a flooded bathroom the next day. In addition, our reservation was muddled up, which resulted in our family being split with two floors between us, and one room assigned at the last minute on the third floor. This was during a heatwave, with no air conditioning and no ability to open windows at night due to floodlights entering the windows from the outside, so we were uncomfortably hot all night. There was also renovation work happening during our stay, with loud construction noises in the morning, and while this is understandable, I felt that it should have been noted at the time of booking. While the hotel staff were highly courteous and friendly, they didn't seem to have the authority to fix these problems or offer us any recompense, and although I was asked to email a summary of our concerns, no response has been received after several days.

The last thing I would note about the chateau is that it is unstaffed at night, between 8pm and 8am, and although there is supposedly an emergency number that can be called, the huge building felt very deserted and I would not have liked to have been there if travelling alone. I wouldn't say it's unsafe, but we honestly weren't sure how secure...