Pilates en France

Rooms

In my mind's eye, a perfect guest bedroom is light, clean, comfortable and quiet in both a literal and decorative sense. Which happens to neatly describe the 4 rooms that Melanie has created at Les Tilleuls.

Two bedrooms are on the ground floor of the original farmhouse. Both are medium-sized with original roof beams and polished planked floors, and both are twins which can be made up as doubles. Expect little decorative showiness: a bedside lamp, an antique chandelier and a vase of cut flowers. Wall hooks with half a dozen hangers take the place of wardrobes whilst woven white rattan baskets supplant chests for storing clothes. A distinctly feminine touch comes in the form of the silk bow wrapped round your towels and the little embroidered bag filled with lavender on your pillow. Expect to find a square of handmade soap and green tea shower gel in your bath or shower room, but no shampoo.

Of the rooms I marginally preferred Camomile, which has windows to 3 sides bringing in the light and surrounding greenery. Rose is next door and smaller, but it has a view out to the terrace and garden. Both have small shower rooms with chunky stone-coloured tiles, and their surface-top enamel sinks, mirrors, heated towel rails and walk-in rain showers all shine like the newest of pins: you can tell that Melanie likes clean as well as clean-cut.

The 2 other rooms are across the courtyard in the converted barn, which also houses the Pilates studio. These have smaller window openings yet painted white floorboards, and the same sparse furnishing imparts a light and cheery look.

Lavande has an eye-catching bedwall of exposed stone, a bath chair and a white chest of drawers. Romarin feels similarly uncluttered with all-white walls, an antique chest of drawers and a lone chair of antique pine. The colour of the room’s names has been taken up in curtains, cushions and durries as well as in the colour scheme of the bathrooms, which are larger than those of the main house. They have both bath and shower and attractive stone-coloured floor tiles.