Les Domaines de Fontenille, a group of 5 hotels
The Domaines de Fontenille offer a particular journey, as physical as intellectual, sensory and initiatory. It’s a geographical and historical journey: centuries overlap, distances disappear, one landscape after another: from the cliffs of Minorca until the Luberon mountains, from Marseilles calanques to Aix-en-Provence vineyards. The Domaines de Fontenille is a new hotel concept combining the art de vivre à la française, cultural discoveries, gastronomy, wellbeing, simplicity and elegance. It’s also knowing the terroirs and their particularities: adapt a comprehensive offer of gastronomy, care and wellbeing to the richness of a land. It’s a return to the essence: appreciate the beauty of a place, revel the privileges of nature, savour time.
Les Domaines de Fontenille” is a collection of 5 hotels: Les Bords de Mer in Marseille; Santa Ponsa and TorreVella (Fontenille Menorca group), two agrotourisms in Minorca, in the Balearic Island and Les Hortensias du Lac, a hotel-restaurant and spa in Hossegor on the Atlantic coast. Two other hotels will complement the collection soon: an amazing project in the West of Paris close to Giverny and a beautiful hotel on the Seignosse Golf close to Les Hortensias du lac.
Les Bords de Mer
The first thing to strike you about Les Bords de Mer will be its stunning view of the Mediterranean Sea, stretching as far as the eye can see. It is one of the most gorgeous views in all of Marseilles and the light is unlike anywhere else in the world. The location of the hotel is a special one, located at the heart of this city founded by the Phoenicians: directly on the sea, feet already in the water, at the end of the Catalans beach and in front of the Cercle des Nageurs building, it’s centrally located the Old Port, just five minutes away on foot, with the first calanques 30 minutes away. The rooms face outwards towards the sea but that’s not all: the restaurant, bar, heated rooftop swimming pool, spa, fitness room and seaside café all open up onto the sea.
It is also home to a restaurant which offers a lively, healthy, modern, tangy, varied seafood-based menu. It is located right at the water level and during springtime tables are set out along its terrace rooftop. Les Bords de Mer offers 19 rooms, each opening out onto the Mediterranean Sea. The decorations selected use a pastel colour scheme and natural wood to harken back to the golden age of the 50s, with contemporary touches, and all the while never losing sight of the permanence of the vast sea before them.
Les Bords de Mer is also about listening to your body’s needs and taking care of yourself: there is the fitness room and a mineral spa - made entirely out of honeyand sand-coloured stone - which is the first in the region to follow REN Clean Skincare protocols, treatment and massage rooms, a sauna, a hammam as well as an indoor heated pool.
Fontenille Menorca
Fontenille Menorca offers a summary of the characteristics of one of the most beautiful and secretive places the Balearic Islands has to offer, boasting wild and unspoiled nature, endemic cultures, an exceptional architectural heritage, virgin beaches of white sand and crystal clear water. 1 hotel 2 unique experiences : Spread over more than 300 hectares on two separate sites, the historic fincas of Santa Ponsa and Torrevella, the Fontenille Menorca hotel concept is unique on the island: offering two experiences in two neighboring yet totally different fincas which, through numerous interactions between the two properties and their proximity, offer guests a wide range of opportunities, enriching all the more the vision they will keep of Minorca for years to come.
20 ha of vineyards, 20 ha of aromatic plant gardens, hundreds of orange, citrus, pomegranate and olive trees, a permaculture organic vegetable garden, a winery, an aromatic essential oil distillery, an oil mill and honey production equipment: Like for Le Domaine de Fontenille, at Fontenille Menorca, agriculture, traceability, natural world are at the forefront of our thoughts.
Understanding plants’ life cycles, observing their flowering patterns, making our own wine, squeezing our own juice, using the oil we made from our own plants in all of our restaurants, living in harmony with nature and with animals – this is the best of what Menorca, that marvellous agricultural island, has to offer. It’s all about
getting back in touch with the earth, time and oneself.
Les Hortensias du Lac
Les Hortensias du Lac Hotel is an iconic figure in the scenic seaside resort town of Hossegor.
The 25 rooms and suites enjoy views of the west bank of marine lake and are located a mere 200 metres from the endless beaches of the Atlantic coast, in the shade of the pines. Les Hortensias skillfully combines Art Deco and surf culture through the values and unique atmosphere of the Les Domaines de Fontenille collection. Most of the rooms in Les Hortensias du Lac open out onto the marine lake. Most are fitted with large balconies or terraces. The renovated style is a combination of classic Landaise seaside resort and a more casual, laid-back attitude similar to what you would find at the famous surf hotels in the Hamptons in the States.
The restaurant, fully glazed, overlooks the Hossegor lake. Chef Philippe Moreno, who previously worked with three-starred chef Gerald Passédat in Marseille, offers a cuisine based on seafood and planchas: local sourcing, respect for the seasons, sustainable development and permanent renewal.
The new spa was designed to be a continuation of the scenery outside of the hotel: 450 m2 of blonde stone, light-coloured wood and sandy ceramic work housing a number of amenities - dedicated dry and wet massage rooms, a cold bath, whirlpool, outdoor Nordic bath, sauna, a rest area and a tea room - for an experience like no other in Hossegor. The spa has exclusive well-being protocols in place with L:a Bruket, the Swedish cosmetics brand, using natural, organic products manufactured in the Varberg surf resort on the west coast of Sweden.
