Chateau d’Adomenil in Luneville, near Nancy, in the Lorraine region of France
As I stated in my other writing, when driving from Calais to Southern Austria or Germany, Metz and Nancy in the Lorraine region of France are a good halfway place to stop and find a hotel. Having suffered at the hands of many a Basil Fawlty-esque hoteliers in my time, I decided to enlist the help of Relais & Chateaux to find a place to stay in the Lorraine area.
Based on my geographical requirements – I wanted a hotel not too far from a motorway (10-15 minute drive from the E23 or E25 motorways was ideal) – the site recommended Chateau d’Adomenil in Luneville France. Based on the photos shown on the web site and a brief read through the text, this hotel – deemed by Relais & Chateaux to be a luxury hotel – seemed ideal.
Now, let me be honest, when you search the Internet for hotel options in Lorraine, very few are offered. Yes you get your smattering of motels (F1) and business hotels (Novotel, Best Western) but few with character, charm and a level of elegance that raises them above the others. From the outset, Chateau d’Adomenil seemed to offer this. Set in the sleepy town of Luneville and boasting a gourmet restaurant with a Michelin star, I had high hopes that I may have finally found the perfect stopping point for my road trips.
My concerns, however, began to grow as I read the reviews for the hotel on Trip Advisor. While the overall ranking for Chateau d’Adomenil are high (4-5 stars out of 5), flaws such as the hotel being hard to find, smells for the local farm and noise from the local train track were expressed by many reviewers. Even so, I decided to book a room for the night.
Arriving mid afternoon, I soon realised that the d’Adomenil’s postcode is not effective for navigation system purposes – as there is no street address this is what I was reliant on - because the navigation took me to, what I later found out was, the entirely wrong side of Luneville and Rehainviller. Thankfully I could fall back to the directions on the hotel web site which I had printed off. After navigating my way through the town and attempting to follow the directions from the web site, I stumbled across a sign for the hotel, which promptly lead to no where as I approached a road junction and the next signpost was missing! Even so, after driving aimlessly around the town of Luneville, I finally managed to find another signpost for the hotel.
The road to Chateau d’Adomenil is a rural single track – what most people would call a farm road. Sure enough, when you reach the end of the road, you are greeted not by the wonderful hotel shown on the web sites but by a working farm (I assumed it was dairy because of the amount of cows and the smell that immediately hit you when exiting the car). If you are not fond of the smell of cow manure and farming, I would question whether you will be entirely satisfied with the aroma present when arriving at the hotel. To be fair, the smell is not taken inside the buildings and the room that I was given was finished to a nice standard and very comfy.
At check-in time I noticed there was only one person who spoke a smattering of English. Now in fairness, this is France and the native language isn’t English; however, this did cause problems when ordering food for dinner (menu was in French, there was no English version available and no one was able to understand what we were asking for or to explain what we were ordering). Even so, with some very poor French, we were able to manage (although this was far from ideal and didn’t make for an easy stay).
Now onto the third concern people mentioned: the noise from the train track. Yes there is a train track very close to the hotel but in fairness, unlike other guests, I wasn’t disturbed by the train during the night or morning. Most of the people who reported this seem to have stayed in the main hotel but I was located in the courtyard complex.
To conclude: the hotel is not easy to find, it is located by a farm with the associated smells and there can be background noise from the local trains. I personally would have benefited from a restaurant menu in English or a member of staff who could speak basic English.
On the positive side – the hotel was clean, service was (for the main) polite and the food in the restaurant was above average (it should be noted you cannot dine until 7:30pm, so those with young children may find this inconvenient; however, this is quite typical across the entirety of France).
Would I stay here again? If I am honest, probably not. The location wasn’t ideal and the limitations of the hotel would probably force me to choose another venue (possibly in Metz) over Chateau d’Adomenil. It is not that it isn’t a fine hotel, I just believe that for 550.00 Euro (1 night, 2 guests including a meal (2-course, 2 glasses of wine) and basic continental breakfast) you could find a better option.
