When you travel around Europe you are bound to see or stay in a restored building, whether it was an old winery, monastery, or just plain old building, a lot of places are repurposed and refreshed as places to spend the night. I have often selected boutique hotels or places with history and character as places to stay to add to the travel experience instead of just collecting points at hotels that could be in any city. I have always wanted to stay in a castle or château but most times the ones that have been redone as hotels are set farther away from the main cities and tourist attractions and therefore less convenient options for most stays.
When we planned a trip to the Provincial region of France, it felt like the perfect place to find a French Chateau to call home (for a couple nights anyways). The region is so sprawling, with all the top attractions so spread out that you will want to have a rental car no matter what, so staying a bit farther from the city center is not an inconvenience.
I booked Chateau de la Barben because it was central to where we wanted to visit, was a reasonable price point (at only $200 per night) and looked like a super quaint château that could have been from the 1900s for all I knew. What I didn’t realize until we arrived is that we were staying in a serious 60 room castle with over 1000 years of history and possibly one of the most beautiful and well maintained castles in Provence.
The castle’s history dates back to 1000 or sooner, it seems hard to pin down, although back then it would have started as basically a large round tower. At the time, it’s position atop giant rocks made it a safe haven against any potential intruders. In the 1100s, it was acquired by Lord Pierre de Pontevèves, whose family maintained it for the next few centuries. It exchanged hands between French royalty for a while before coming to the Forbin family, one of the wealthiest families of the 1400s. The Forbin family was instrumental in bringing Provence into the Crown of France and much of that can be assumed to have occurred from this château. Auguste Forbin (who ran the Louvre at some point) was said to have had an affair with the Princess Borghese, sister of Napoleon I. The Forbin’s owned several other castles in the region for almost 500 years until the family-line ended and it was passed to a family friend and then to the son-in-law, Bertrand Pillivuyt in 2006. In 2017 the castle was up for sale for a cool $22 million but I don’t think it sold because it is the Pillivuyt’s who run the castle now and were our hosts during our stay.
The rooms are beautifully decorated in a blend of old European elegance yet modern functionality. The clawfoot tub was impressive in the bathroom but the shower was practical and appreciated. Unfortunately there is no air conditioning so we needed to keep our windows open which would probably be a bit more uncomfortable in July and August timeframe. It may be a castle but it is no Buckingham Palace so the renovation and updating is a long and arduous processes, especially since it is a historical monument.
The castle offers tours for 10 euro per person which is especially funny when you open your door and people try and peek inside. Since we stayed there we had our own tour in private to ourselves with our period-dressed guide. While most of the rooms we saw on the tour were open to us throughout our stay, like the chapel, kitchen, and drawing rooms, learning about the history and the art throughout the castle really made it special after staying there. As my husband said, this is like almost any other castle tour we’ve done in Europe except we literally stayed here where all of this took place. It really adds a next level of excitement and interest.
Each morning we had breakfast at the 8-person family table in the medieval kitchen. The fact that a 60-room castle is run like a bed and breakfast make you feel like part of the family instead of just another tourist. It wasn’t an extravagant breakfast but the croissants and coffee were good and being greeted every morning by the host made the trip to the kitchen worth it. Even parking here was exciting. The castle gate closes at night but guests are given the equivalent of a garage-door opener to open the gate when they come in for the night. Opening the giant metal door with a remote literally made me giggle every time.
The castle also has its own private gardens that are locked to the public but open to guests of the castle so we were able to walk down and have the entire space to ourselves. The gardens were design by Le Notre….who also happened to design the gardens of Versailles. It really added to the whole princess-vibe I was getting.
If you are looking to have a once in a lifetime experience and not break the bank, Chateau de la Barben is the perfect place for you. If you’re looking for a reason to book it, you can use it as a reason to day trip to Monaco and the Cote d’Azure or the lavender fields of Provence.
Happy Travels
Xx
Kali