STAY > Le Relais Bernard Loiseau, Burgundy (18/20)

Le Relais Bernard Loiseau is a destination hotel where serious gastronomy, deep spa-soothing and old‑world Burgundy village charm intersect. Perhaps more famed as the home of restaurant ‘La Côte d’Or’ which has held as many as 3 Michelin stars in its famous history. It is a place where you come for the meal and yet the hotel is what really stays with you.

AMBIENCE >

Arriving in Saulieu feels like stepping off the main gastronomic grid and into a particularly well‑kept shrine to French art de vivre. The 33-room Relais & Châteaux property wraps around a central garden, its stone façades and steep roofs quietly signalling history while the interiors lean into plush carpets, timber beams and a palette that flatters candlelight and Burgundy pinot.

Inside, the atmosphere is cocooning rather than ostentatious: a library with fireplace for winter evenings, billiards and lounges for aperitif hour, and windows framing the gardens and Morvan hills beyond. Staff operate at that polished, almost telepathic level you only see in long‑running houses, smoothing arrivals, restaurant choreography and spa transitions with unfussy confidence.

SLEEP >

Rooms and suites are all individually decorated, running from classic country house to more contemporary takes, but always with deep mattresses, generous textiles and the sort of soundproofing that makes early-morning village life feel very far away. Many look directly onto the manicured gardens or out towards the Auxois hills, and several categories add small balconies or terraces that reward staying put with a glass of something local.

Bathrooms skew indulgent: double vanities in higher categories, proper soaking tubs, robes that invite lingering and amenities that make post‑spa evenings feel like continuation rather than comedown. Turn‑down is old‑school in the best way, with careful details that remind you this is still very much a house built around ritual.

EAT >

You come to Saulieu, of course, for the table. The two‑Michelin‑starred La Côte d’Or remains the beating heart of the property, now under chef Louis‑Philippe Vigilant, who carries forward Bernard Loiseau’s obsession with clarity of flavour and terroir while loosening the collar with modern, season‑driven plates. Expect reworked Burgundian signatures, pristine jus, and a disciplined approach to fat and richness that lets sauces hum rather than shout.

Alongside the grand dining room, Loiseau des Sens offers a slightly more relaxed way into the kitchen’s language, perched above the spa with a terrace that overlooks the gardens. It’s where the hotel explores a “wellness” register without sacrificing pleasure, leaning on vegetables, aromatics and lighter extractions that still feel celebratory rather than corrective.

DRINK >

The cellar is the kind of Burgundy deep-dive oenophiles dream about, with tens of thousands of bottles resting below and a list that moves assuredly from local domaines to benchmark French references. Sommeliers are relaxed and generous with their knowledge, happy to steer you between mature Côte d’Or, rising‑star vignerons and the occasional detour further afield when the dish demands it.

By‑the‑glass options are strong, making a long lunch or multi‑course dinner feel more like a gentle progression than a single high‑stakes bottle decision. Elsewhere in the house, bars and lounges cater to both serious aperitif drinkers and those content with a simple kir made with local crème de cassis before dinner.

WORKOUT >

If your idea of a workout is lane‑swimming between courses, the outdoor pool and extensive Spa Loiseau des Sens are reason enough to linger. Inside the spa complex you’ll find a fitness room with modern equipment, a 24‑hour gym offering, and a circuit of sauna, hammam, sensory showers and hydrotherapy pools that encourage more meandering than counting reps.

There’s also a program of yoga classes and movement‑adjacent activities on offer, depending on the season, which pairs nicely with the surrounding Morvan Regional Nature Park if you’d rather trade treadmills for forest paths. It’s less hardcore training camp, more considered re‑calibration between rich sauces and long tastings.

PLAY >

Between services, the property reveals its country‑house credentials: gardens to wander, loungers by the pool, a billiard room and games spaces that make it easy to stretch an afternoon into an evening.

The indoor pool itself has a series of stations that bubble and fountain in a variety of different ways and provide opportunities to stretch out the knots and kinks that may have been collected on the drive between the various scenic towns and vineyards of Burgundy.

For design‑minded guests, there’s pleasure in the layering of eras: original architectural bones, later additions like the glass‑fronted spa and its rooftop garden, and small contemporary art and design gestures throughout. The broader setting in the Morvan and along the historic N6 means you can fold in wine tastings and small‑town explorations without losing the gravitational pull of the house.

CONCLUSION >

Relais Bernard Loiseau is less a simple Burgundy stop‑over and more a fully realised universe built around taste, hospitality and the quiet rituals of the French countryside. Come for the legend and the two‑star table, but stay long enough to let the spa, the gardens and the family’s long view of luxury recalibrate your sense of what a “gastronomic weekend” can be.

Click on images below to launch the lightbox

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Image Credit | ALMANAK

---