We stopped by this place by accident on an annual chateau jaunt. You should be aware that it is not a château (the rooms in the main house are adequate but not luxury).

The restaurant experience was extraordinary. Beautiful setting, peaceful gardens, a cocktail on the terrace, it all started with promise. However, several of the same people said good evening to us 3 times - service was polite, but over attentive. We were asked at least 6 times if we wanted more bread. We were creased up laughing, but just as well, as the two Michelin ** food was extremely disappointing and the duck had to go back. The kitchen and service then panicked, as did the management who did all the wrong things when you send a dish back - denied it and made my friend feel guilty for doing so. The prices for this establishment, for the food and for the wine are plain insulting. Funny that Esperance means hope - because I'm afraid they need it.

I saw the TripAdvisor reviews before going, and quite frankly, was a little nervous about the place. Turned out my apprehension was misplaced. The breif stay with dinner was pleasant and very enjoyable, and the dining very good.

The room we had was a patio room on the other side of the road down a secured road, which was fine - I can see why the weather might concern in making it back and forth from the restaurant on foot - however, the staff was more than willing to give us a ride back to our room after dinner. The room itself was a pretty standard hotel room layout. The tv was a small tube tv located in a cabinet which is maybe in need of an update, but dinner is the entertainment here. There was a nice patio with a nice seating area. The room had a desk and side chair in addition to the bed, and we were treated to a bottle of Marc Meneau wine in our room.

The bathroom, while adequate, is in need of one very minor improvement that would go far in improving the experience. The shower is a hand held hose/shower head off the bath fawcet. However, they did not have the usual support on the wall that you can hang it on so that the shower acts as a shower. In other words, you have to hold the shower head to take a shower, which is incredibly inconvienient, and could be fixed with a small, inexpensive piece of hardwear.

The meal was outstanding, and the service quite attentive, with Mrs Meneau keeping continual tabs on everything, while having exceptional service from both the sommellier and the waiters. There was no letdown in the dining room. All tables primarily face the garden and are in a conservatory room with lots of glass. Upon the conclusion of our meal, Mr. Meneau made his rounds and greeted each table which we were no exception. He was very pleasant, and unfortunately we weren't invited to tea to discuss my wife's sense of style. (Probably because we were dressed appropriately for a Michelin starred restaurant) We retired to the bar area with our coffee service and petit-fours at their suggested and comfortably enjoyed the rest of the evening.

The meal is expensive and worth it / typical for a Michelin 2 star restaurant, and the room might be a little overpriced as hotels go, but as a combination I'm more than glad we included this on our itinerary and thank the Meneau's for the hospitality.

Upon checkout we received a package of caramels and nougat for the road, the caramels were outstanding (and the nougat pretty good too).

L'Esperance was a surprise. In very many way it is definetly more a 5* hotel than 4*. Every detail is part of true perfection. Design is sophisticated but cosy. We enjoyed a lot the lounge with beautyful fur on sofas, garden terrace for a coffee and the whole garden itself. Hotel has three different "wings". Main building with few rooms and public areas, garden gallery house which doesn't look very nice from outside, but the rooms are superior and each one has a private terrace, where they will serve you a breakfast in the morning. Third part is an old millhouse, a bit separate from the others, but simply gorgeous from inside. Even though the main reason to go to L'Esperance is Marc Meneau and his food, the hotel itself is also definitely worth to stay! I think the breakfast was my favourite one ever! :)

Terrible experience. They talked us into changing rooms and didn't tell us that there was an increased cost associated with the change. Dinner and wine were so overpriced it was unbelievable. We turned back the first bottle of wine. The second was inferior to a similar wine we had in Autun at 1/4 the price. The staff kept trying to get us to drink more sparkling water and wine about every two minutes so that they could sell us more. As an entree they served me an essentially raw pigeon breast. It was horrible! The petit fours were poor. The room was nice, but only boiling water came out of the shower and they couldn't fix it. Overall, it was a very disappointing experience.