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Alistair Sawday's Special Places to Stay
Twenty miles across the English Channel and you are in another country: less than an hour’s drive from Calais and you are in another century. The delightful town of Montreuil-sur-Mer is situated on a hilltop inland from the Le Touquet coast. It is steeped in Gallic history and redolent with bonhomie. This makes it well worth a visit – for a few days, or longer – or even a stopover en route further inland.
I first set eyes on Montreuil ten years ago, after reading an advertisement in the Daily Telegraph about a Son-et-Lumiere production of Victor Hugo’s "Les Miserables" to be staged and performed by the citizen’s of Montreuil in the Citadel, a ruined old castle on the rampart walls.
A phone call to the friendly tourist office found us with tickets for the production and a list of nearby hotels. We opted for the unpretentious sounding "Hotel de France" run by Patrick and Janie Harpur. Assuming there must be a hundred so-named hotels throughout France, we expected another boring staid but safe haven for travellers - in the same category as "The Red Lion", "King’s Head" or "Queen’s Arms" as we know them, here in dear old Blighty. No so! Never assume!
On arrival we immediately discovered that there is nothing boring or staid about Montreuil’s Hotel de France. Just to walk through the huge archway of patchwork brick at the entrance to the cobbled courtyard, where once coaches drawn by steaming horses set down their passengers, is to go through a curtain in time that takes one back more than four hundred years into the mists of French history.
This aged and weather-beaten, grade one listed Coaching Inn with its steep roofed tiles desperately clinging to the rafters, is situated just off the Montreuil town centre on the original coaching route from Paris to London. It is said to be one of the oldest structures in the region. It stands now in its original state offering a haven of rest and repast to weary travellers, as it has done since it was established in 1578.
The present owner, Janie Harpur first set eyes on the hotel when visiting Montreuil during 1975 when it was being run by two old Frenchwomen, amazingly still trading, even though no repairs or maintenance had been done for fifty years. Several visits and some years later the property came on the market. Janie had fallen in love with the hotel. She felt she must buy it and was delighted to have the challenge and opportunity to restore it.
As a professional interior decorator Janie has a unique sense of style and an eye for the bizarre and unusual. After months of hard work using her creative genius, she began to breathe new life into this venerable and historic old French hostelry. There is a limit to what can be done in France to an important Heritage building. It is subject to the same strictures that apply in England regarding restoration and renovations to period properties. Wisely, Janie did not attempt to change this charming original and genuine French Provincial hostelry into a smart modern hotel. She used her creative artistic ability to restore the hotel without losing its essential quaint and idiosyncratic resonance. Janie’s décor is in the style of Jacques Tati – tatty-chic. Her wonderful "French stressed" approach to décor presents a lovable merging of ancient and modern. It is like being in a time warp. The effect is not so much up-market splendour as cultivated antiquity. In fact you need to have been there when she began her renovation to recognise what this clever artist has accomplished since.
The hotel’s crumbling unpainted exterior still speaks of the 16th century. In fact it yells "Ye Olde" in whatever way one would express that in French! You need to stop in your tracks to soak up the atmosphere of Dauphin and Dilletante. You need to look and marvel, that despite the onslaught over the centuries of weevil and weather, this doughty old hotel, as ancient and lovely as ever, remains intact to tell the tale. Do not, however, let the aged exterior prevent you from enjoying the interior. Just enter, take a glass of wine, book a room. There will be no disappointment. Negotiating stairs and passageways en route to the rooms is to experience a pitch and roll of structural heave through the ages. Nothing is level, nothing straight. A nightcap dram of Cognac or the local calvados (apple cognac) takes on the measure of six, as you tilt and weave yourself upstairs and along the corridors to sweet dreams.
Artfully Patrick and Janie have achieved en-suite facilities within the wall-warped and window creaking bedrooms. They have provided comfortable beds, marshmallow pillows and body-warming blankets that offer a night of rest and ease for which the French are renowned.
Everywhere can be seen a mixture of Kaleidoscopic colour and artistic bric-a-brac. This sets a standard far above average. There is a surprise at every turn, a smile at every corner. It is a heady mix of sixteenth-century architecture and the stridence of sixties’ flower power.
Originality and old-world charm extend still further. Breakfast is served in a huge banqueting room that was used in days past as a community centre for the town’s local gatherings and tea dances. The beams and chandeliers have been bedecked with hanging baubles. Large art works depicting giant sunflowers and other motifs are in profusion around the walls under a strikingly sky-blue, star-studded ceiling. It suggests that van Gogh might once have dallied here. This ballroom has a purpose-built stage and established performance lighting. It attracts live bands and stage events throughout the year, also doubling as a unique function centre, which caters for weddings and conferences. But there is more.
Across the courtyard is Le Relais du Roy, a restaurant which was, in past centuries the Relais used by kings, queens and the nobility. Then tired and dusty travellers could be sure of good wholesome food and fine wines or ales. No different now. This delightful restaurant, its original beams still overhead, contains a heady mix of imposing Louis XVI style gilded mirrors hanging on tulip painted walls. The décor is in shades of turquoise, lilac and purple. The excellence of a modern French style cuisine has made it a Mecca for tourists and French citizens alike.
From the charm of the restaurant a glance across the courtyard is to glimpse into the pages of history. In times past kings and queens would alight from their carriages when arriving to stay overnight. In this same cobbled yard Emperor Napoleon stepped from his coach to stay at the hotel en route to one of his many battles. During 1765 the writer Laurence Stern spent time at the hotel while writing his famous book "Sentimental Journey". A very large mural in the courtyard has pride of place commemorating his visit. He spoke of the Hotel de France as having "A convivial atmosphere and ambience that cures the soul of spleen".
Staying in the hotel in 1812, while writing "Les Miserables" Victor Hugo took breakfast in the courtyard. The Hotel de France was the coaching inn featured in his play. Some of the characters, including the innkeeper were based on local citizens. His visit to Montreuil is commemorated every year in July and August with two long-weekend son-et-lumiere performances of "Les Miserables" held in the citadel, a restored medieval castle built on the rampart walls.
Towards the end of the 1914-1918 war Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig used the hotel as his operations headquarters. In the hotel courtyard he chose the body of the soldier who was to be buried in the tomb of the "Unknown Soldier". The arrival of the casket at Victoria Station London is marked to this day with a plaque on Platform six.
For me, as a casual visitor this hotel tippled out fun and Gallic history by the carafe-full. Vintage French flavour mingled with English eccentricity has created a unique taste to the palette. When Janie took on the challenge 15 years ago, she took a chance, not really knowing what the future held. Today Patrick and Janie have assured the future of the hotel. Ninety percent of their bookings are repeats from France, Britain and Europe. They have reversed the sad fortunes of a once fading haven for journeymen. Through their efforts they have established an attraction to be enjoyed in and around Montreuil with touches of artful fun that would bring a smile even to Napoleon’s doleful features.
The hotel is a two star Relais situated North-West of Paris on the coast of the English Channel and quite close to Belgium. It takes two hours by train from Paris. It is accessible from Britain by Tomcat (Hoverspeed), Eurotunnel or Ferry (P&O/Sea France) from Dover to Calais or by Seacat (SpeedFerries) from Dover to Bologne. Montreuil is two and a half hours’ drive away from Monet’s garden at Giverny. It is a twenty minutes drive from Le Touquet (the French Paris Plage – closest beach to Paris.- famous for its moules mariniere and its seaside casino). When the Duke and Duchess of Windsor eloped they stayed at the Westminster Hotel in Le Touquet.
Montreuil is easily accessible to the Somme and the many Commonwealth and Allied War Memorial sites commemorating those soldiers who fell in the last two World Wars.
Words by Michael Charity for the Daily Mail