Le Prieure

Le Prieure

Le Prieure sits inside the old walls of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, close enough to the Eglise Collegiale Notre-Dame and the Musee Pierre de Luxembourg that the day's sightseeing can start on foot before breakfast is cleared away. The hotel carries the Relais & Chateaux mark, a detail that matters here: it explains the garden restaurant serving French cuisine rather than a hotel buffet stretched thin, and the library room that gives guests somewhere to sit with a book instead of a lobby screen. Thirty eight rooms keep the place at the scale of a private house rather than a hotel block, small enough that the garden and the outdoor pool stay the focus rather than corridors. Rooms range from a Classic Double with a private bathroom to a Deluxe Double fitted with air conditioning, a minibar, and a safe, up to a Junior Double Suite built to sleep as many as five adults, each finished with toiletries, a bathrobe, and slippers. The concierge speaks English and French, arranges transfers, and will book the airport shuttle if asked. Pets are allowed for a modest per-stay fee, and there is a playroom for children, so this is not the address for guests chasing total quiet, though the garden and the library still offer that option to anyone who wants it. Business travelers get a conference hall and meeting rooms without the property losing its residential feel. What Le Prieure has that the larger hotels in central Avignon, some three kilometres off, do not is scale: thirty eight rooms, a library, and a Relais & Chateaux kitchen inside a walled town, minutes on foot from the Musee Pierre de Luxembourg. A 38-room Relais & Chateaux address inside the walls of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, minutes on foot from the Musee Pierre de Luxembourg, with a garden restaurant, a library, and an outdoor pool. Pets and children are both welcome, and the library stays quiet for anyone who wants it.