One-Minute Hotel / La Divine Comédie, Avignon
Is this the most beautiful guest-house in the whole wide world? We think it is. And we’ve been about a bit.
So, where are we?
At La Divine Comédie, ten minutes down some winding medieval streets from the centre of Avignon, one of the south of France’s most gorgeous cities with all its history: seven Popes in a row lived here in the 1300s, so you can imagine the amount of Palais des Papes and cathedrals and bridges and gorgeousness in the historic centre. You don’t become a UNESCO heritage site for nothing.
And where we’re staying...?
La Divine Comédie? Probably the most impressive building ever to call itself a guest house. Past a huge full-scale gate complete with gatehouse, is a garden so rambling and lovely - the biggest in town, come to that - you’d never know you were a short walk away from the action. With a pool over there, a spa round there, a koi pond, towering plane trees and an outside bar with some seating for those sunny summer evenings, it is sublime. And the building is a 17th century former convent that... well, just look at it.
What’s the style?
Antique, eclectic and just a little bit goofy. There’s no hiding the grandeur but the owners (one is an antiques dealer) have loaded the place with quirky details, like a full-size Victorian baby elephant in papier-mâché in the lounge, grand salons peppered with 70s lighting, Louis XIV chandeliers jostling with modern art and gilt mirrors, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves loaded with books from throughout the ages next to a full-size ceramic cactus. Every detail of the highest quality. Even the bouncy dogs and the languorous pussycat match the furniture. Of course they do!
And the rooms?
There are just five of them, equally spectacular and often with views over that garden. The fascinating melange that leads you up a curly stone staircase - yes, the drawings are original - continues in the rooms with huge antique baths, sinks made from objets trouves, a yacht on the marble mantelpiece, beds with swags that would get an appreciative fingering from Marie-Antoinette. Spacious, lavish, clever.
Is there a story?
It is the home, the pride and the joy of a gay couple who met when one went into the Parisian antiques shop of the other to enquire about that life-size Victorian elephant made of papier-mâché. Love ensued, this palace was found, made into their private home... and then they decided to share it with the world. Lucky world.
And to eat?
There is no shortage of opportunities to enjoy a drink out in that garden and they’ll set up a beautiful white-tablecloth breakfast on the gravel, complete with dogs to tickle but it’s a guest house so no restaurant. They are seriously hooked up to the best restaurants around for delivery or reservations, mind.
So, to sum up...
La Divine Comédie is a truly beautiful and peaceful spot with the kindest and friendliest staff. Find a lovelier guest house and we’ll give you a tenner. More if we’re feeling flush.
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