10/04/2026: Third time at the Couvent des Minimes.
The spa is still as magnificent and luxurious as ever.
However, it lacks maintenance.
Brown waterline in the rooms with stone walls.
Cracked paint on the ceiling and mold in the sensory shower.
Limescale on the showerhead faucets and on the ceiling, and mold on the walls of the changing room shower.
The receptionist was courteous and smiling: she told me that my comments would be passed on, but didn't write them down for future reference when I explained my surprise and disappointment. Nothing more. I don't think this is what you'd expect from a 5-star Relais & Châteaux. The restaurant and service were impeccable, the waiter was highly professional. Superb setting.
10/04/2026: Our stay here was, in many ways, a study in contrasts.
To start on a positive note, the front desk team was excellent. They were professional, proactive, and even offered us a room upgrade upon arrival, which immediately set a strong first impression.
Unfortunately, the rest of the experience didn’t quite live up to that standard. The food was perfectly acceptable, though not especially memorable if you’re hoping for a culinary highlight.
The biggest disconnect came at the outdoor pool area. I wasn’t there to swim — I simply needed to retrieve an item from a family member’s bag while she was in the water. Since she couldn’t hear me from a distance, I walked toward the pool to get it myself, as one would normally expect to do in any hotel setting.
Partway there, I realized I was being followed rather urgently by the spa staff. It was only then that anyone explained the hotel’s policy requiring guests to wear hotel-issued flip-flops on the outdoor pool deck.
What made the situation particularly frustrating was the complete lack of practical assistance. No one offered to call out to my family member, help retrieve the bag, or explain the rule beforehand. The focus seemed to be entirely on enforcement rather than hospitality.
To be frank, I’ve had traffic stops that felt more courteous and clearly communicated. At least there, the rules are made clear from the outset and the tone remains civil. In this case, there was no mention of the policy in the booking materials and no visible signage at the entrance. The whole interaction felt unnecessarily confrontational for what was obviously a simple, harmless situation.
It was also disappointing that, despite the excellent welcome from the front desk, no one later acknowledged or attempted to address that experience.
There’s also an odd contradiction in the hotel’s strictness regarding footwear hygiene in an outdoor area while maintaining a beautiful but notably noisy frog pond directly beside the room windows. While visually charming, the frogs create significant noise throughout the night, which made it difficult to get proper sleep.
It’s a shame, because the kindness of the front desk staff, the nice interior and the room upgrade — which was genuinely appreciated — ended up being overshadowed by inconsistent service and the noisy environment.
If you value a quiet night and a bit of common-sense hospitality, this may be worth keeping in mind. At this price level, the inconsistencies in service and sleep quality make the overall value feel somewhat hard to reconcile.
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