France Romance - L'Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay

So why is it that we go to France again?  For the food yes,  for the shopping definitely,  for the fashion,

for the wine, for the history, the art .....and what about.......

for the Romance?

L'Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay is a 40-minute slow train ride from Montparnasse in Paris

a disused abbey that was converted in the 19th century by the French side of the Rothschild family

into a country house hotel.

I checked Trip Adviser and apparently this is a hotel that hosts alot of conferences.

and it is no bargain.  It has an elegant restaurant gastronomique, and a newer, more moderately priced annex with swimming pool.  And according to some of the Trip Adviser reviews, a few service quirks that need to be brought out of the 19th century!  

But if it were 90 degrees in Paris, and there were no air-conditioning in your room (or du climatisation pas trop performant).  How deliciously welcoming would this seem?

If your hotel window were hanging open with curtain flapping in desperate hopes of capturing a faint gasp of cool air from the limpid Parisian night streets.  Instead of the horrendous racket of motorscooters and fire engines.....

maybe you would find the quiet and isolation, the stately echoing beauty of this stone-y refuge

with it's boating lake

and its giant copper beech, a very attractive and TRULY ROMANTIC alternative?????

The good news is that, if you are NOT the type who spends a great deal of their lives draping yourselves around the premises of $400.00/night hotels, the strange truth about the Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay is that its park is entirely open and free of charge to the public.  Boating hire costs a little more.  But what if you could rent a little gite down the road in the peace and quiet of a tidy little village?  And you could pack a little lunch and buzz a little way down the road in your rental car........WHAT could be more romantic than a simple picnic on the grass in this gorgeous place?  And maybe a nap after.  With the one you love?  And noone else around?

You might never look back.

(Sadly my own camera ran out of juice just inside the gates of L'Abbaye so last several pics via Iphone courtesy of M. Paradis.   So excuses for the fuzzy quality.)