Chaumont-sur-Loire’s focus on nature has been extended to this newly opened hotel on the castle’s grounds. Occupying a restored farmhouse and two new buildings bordered by a frog pond and gardens of wildflowers, the hotel has been designed so that guests are enveloped by nature. Rooms are decorated in muted greens, beiges and pinks and light wood furnishings. Beds are snugly set within alcoves facing the gardens or in adjacent sleeping cabins, bringing guests even closer to the great outdoors.

This emphasis on the Loire’s nature flows into the hotel's restaurant, Le Grand Chaume, where chef Guillaume Foucault finesses regional products into refined dishes of Loire Basin shrimp with endives and fig leaves and Noire du Berry chicken with cinnamon-infused beetroot. It's open in the evening only and also to non-guests. Menus range from 55€ to 110€.