FODOR'S  FRANCE 2005

Le Vieux Manoir has been rated "Highly Recommended" by Fodor's France 2005

LE VIEUX MANOIR.  You'll know you're in great hands when you come downstairs to an elegant and inviting breakfast in a glass conservatory filled with purring and laughing fellow guests.  An ultimate welcome mat for anyone visiting the Loire Valley, this magnificently lovely hotel is the creation of Gloria Belknap--- a Californian whose immense style Edith Wharton (that other great Francophile) would have cottoned to immediately.  You'll have a hard time tearing yourself away from your guest room, as Gloria seems to have missed her calling as a decorator extraordinaire:  Toille-de-jouy screens, gilt-framed paintings, comfy Napoleon III-covered-in-jute armchairs, fascinatingly antique armoires, and tables adorned with Shaker baskets make this place House and Garden-worthy.  Each chamber- named after great French ladies, such as Georges Sand, Madame du Barry, and Colette- is a delight:  a bleached red brick chimney and  red-and-white calico accent one, while ceiling beams and a French-provincial four-poster bed warm another.  .  Larger groups can move into a separate (and proportionately pricier) 17th-century cottage, a cosseting maison filled with antiques and wood beams.  But you'll probably spend more time in book-filled library or in the main salon - soaking up the wit and wisdom of Gloria and husband Bob - or by the fountain in the leafy garden.