Le Couvent des Minimes Hotel & Spa

Class: First

Style: Modern design

Rooms: 46

There’s a rich tradition in France of convents, monasteries and abbeys subjected to renovation and re-opened as plush luxury retreats. A fine enough example is the Couvent des Minimes, a 17th-century convent in the Provençal village of Mane converted into a high-end resort compound, one whose spa is no small part of its appeal — lesser hotels boast of L’Occitane toiletries in the baths, while Le Couvent des Minimes is home to a 7,500-square-foot L’Occitane spa.

The 46 rooms and suites aren’t small either, and the bathrooms are particularly capacious — it’s hard to imagine even the smallest standard room would have housed fewer than half a dozen nuns, back in the Couvent’s early days. There’s little in the way of rustic kitsch in these rooms — in any of the suites you could be forgiven for thinking you were in a particularly well-designed urban apartment, were it not for the pastoral scenes taking place outside the windows.

Another convention of the genre is the cloister that’s been converted into a gastronomic restaurant, and it’s a convention that’s followed to the letter here. Le Cloitre is the high-end Provençal restaurant, and Bancaou is the poolside spa-cuisine option, and all the while no fewer than three bars keep the wine and cocktails flowing.

The hotel is a one hour drive from Marseille Provence airport, 50 minutes from the TGV station Aix-en-Provence, and one hour from the TGV station Avignon.