To lavish in the liminal landscape balancing luxury and luminous countryside, the rustic, rural and the refined, ravishing details, it is an epochal exercise that borders on the mystical. Breathtaking escalates to new heights when the air dances through aromatic fields, rosemary and lavender, when the vistas are vast with vineyards, storied houses of aged, weathered stone and those iconic dove blue shutters, tumbling trellises and Plane tree-lined roads. Nowhere is this everywhere, but in the south of France.
Located in the Languedoc (that historical French coastal region, Provence to the Pyrenees), it was a former vineyard home that captured the eye and the soul of Irish couple Karl O’Hanlon and Anita Forte, who purchased Serjac in 2016. With vision, partnership, and roughly $32 million dollars invested, Chateau St. Pierre de Serjac was restored and realized. And with miles, manifest, and intention bordering on madness, I had the gift of visiting this potentially unrivaled refuge in a part of the world that has not once failed to buckle my knees, harness my heart. This time I brought my friend Ingrid along, and my sister Courtney.
Aimed at resetting the standard for flexible vacationing, trading compromise for the cushion of luxury accommodations combined with all the conveniences of a home base, Chateau St. Pierre de Serjac is a retreat and a revelation. Set inside 200 acres of majestic Mediterranean countryside behind a regal flanking of cypress and vines, this working wine estate one ups itself with all the awes of a luxury hotel, a private club, a spa retreat, a villa and a haven. An environmental reverence is real and relevant both visually in the vines and greens that greet and enclose, and this, we learn is the physical and figurative foundation for the eco-conscious ethos that encompasses the entirety of the Chateau and its surrounds. To be in the heart of something so rich in heritage and so respectful of reducing our collective footprint is both rare and a reflection of how deep the respect for nature, history, legacy, and stewardship all run here.
This is the anthem and the tenet behind Domaine & Demeure, the accomplished vision of hoteliers Karl and Anita O’Hanlon. Together they resurrected three separate sleeping giants: wine estates and their environs, prioritizing sustainability and authenticity, creating luxury for long or short term stays in the Languedoc, an unbelievably unspoiled region in the south of France.
We began at Chateau St. Pierre de Serjac and would end at Chateau Capitoul.
St. Pierre de Serjac, the sheer grandeur overwhelms in a way I cannot overstate. Aromatics, wild herbs, and a winters ember (Courtney’s favorite) embrace your senses, pebbly river rocks crunch beneath your feet. Inside the chateau, eight former family rooms are up the formal staircase, ideal for parties of two. King beds, gracious, spacious, majestic and remarkable. To live in a castle.
On the lowest level, a fire crackles in a gorgeous lounge (Ingrid and I would wine-taste there), and the restaurant, stately and regal, is immediately across.
We had the exquisite pleasure of staying in one of the villas. With a terrace, garden, two stories housing four private bathrooms and three private bedrooms, everything about this experience is a bucket list waiting to be written. My oversized rain shower fell from a turret in the sky. The experience of having your own private space while staying somewhere so upscale is an implausible luxury. Liken it to vacationing in a stunning second home (that you own, stay with me here…), where the whole family can sprawl and spend time in common areas or to themselves. And the home happens to live on a gorgeous hermitage, there is daily housekeeping, and all your needs are met if not anticipated.
The customer service is standard-bearing.
Carved from the original estate, the property provides 36 fully equipped villas, for those craving more space and more independence, or maybe to pretend like they live in coastal France for a while. The kitchen is fully equipped. There’s a washer dryer in each and Cinq Mondes amenities. Designed to the nines in iconic French greys, marbles, rustic beams, and gorgeous hardware, it is the kind of tasteful that soothes and sates your sartorial soul (mine was very much at peace). Housing anywhere from two to ten guests, this option is a dream for extended stays. It is a dream, period.
The restaurant is a produce-centric journey for the foodie with a palate and a penchant for seasonally driven goodness. With ingredients sourced from the garden if not just a bit further down the road, the menu will change regularly and accordingly. Expect electric colors and inspired plating, all compliments of what happens when Mother Nature meets you by the Mediterranean for a meal.
There is a full-service spa, an absolute stand-alone destination, where I can highly recommend the facial massage treatment with five Balinese flowers. We had the spa to ourselves, with its eucalyptus steam and hammam, giant indoor pool, jacuzzi, and cocoon loungers. With winding vines that hug wooden beams, and ceiling to floor windows that open completely – that European art of melding indoors and out is on full display here.
Speaking of out, tilt your head towards the sky at night, and open your eyes wide. The stars shine a little brighter in the French countryside. And thousands more seem to come out from hiding. Maybe more.
There is a little farm, where goats and chickens roam delightedly free (and are available for feedings and cuddles), and next to it, the kitchen garden. Submergence into sustainable living is so easy here, so natural and organic in every sense of the word. Farm-to-fork ethos is felt and found throughout, with the organic garden growing the herbs, fruit, and vegetables you will savor at the restaurant, bordered by the equally fruitful vineyards. A bio-intensive agriculture as alluring as it is edifying.
And the options, so easy and so many: A wine and chocolate masterclass. A picnic in the vines. Hatha yoga and meditation.
We had the distinct and remarkable pleasure of wine tasting with Christine Bertoli, an oenophile and utter delight, complete with pairings. This intimate experience is an education, a journey for the palate, and an out and out joy. Another offering that will linger long past that final sip. (They also provide family wine tastings, where toddlers on up are offered flights of grape juice varietals. I die).
The experience at Chateau St. Pierre de Serjac is a five-star luxury hotel with the flexibility of a summer home. The Mediterranean beaches are but a half hour away. Castles, Carcassonne, Montpellier, Beziers, Pezenas, are all dreamy day trips.
Prying ourselves away was only possible with the console of Chateau Capitoul awaiting us next, if you ever doubted France wasn’t the gift that keeps on, here is proof.
Perched high above the hills overlooking the sea, Chateau Capitoul is but another opportunity to live luxuriously in the lap of the Languedoc: the third iteration of the O’Hanlon duo, who have mastered the art of preservation, presentation, and premeditating any and every wanderlust want.
Opened in 2021, the most recent in this portfolio of estates, an offering of updated, upgraded, stays in the chateau offer a renovated renaissance of regal relaxation. The rooms, eight in total, blend vintage, classical, with pops of deco and art nouveau. Think bateau bathtubs, French beams, and beckoning views. Rustic relics and crystal chandeliers. Design combos that set my seeking heart a flutter.
Our villa, one of 44 on this spectacular sect of southern France, maximizes the matrimony of the refined and the reclaimed. Gorgeous décor, unobstructed countryside views from those ceiling to floor windows, spacious and sunlit, a gloriously private terrace, kitchen, multiple bathrooms, bedrooms, dreamy linens and private pools play into every detail of your French fantasy. For sure mine.
Pool at Capitoul
Several dining options are available on property, with a daily foraging likened to Keller’s French Laundry, because the Occitanie offerings are iconically, enviably abundant in this regard. The produce production rivals almost any on earth (genuinely), and everywhere you consume reflects this. Find intimate dining at Mediterraneo, spectacular wood-fired fare at Asado (with unlimited vegetables, pulled daily from the garden) al fresco delights on the Asado Terrace (poolside cocktail, anyone?), and a breakfast spread beneath the umbrellas, indoors at Asado, or available for villa delivery.
Villas, with their fully stocked kitchens, invite some foraging of your own, from any of many surrounding farmers markets (the Saturday market at Gruissan is excellent). And if it is a spa you seek, deep in the cool depths of the Chateau cellars you’ll find one with all the perks, open year-round.
Paris in the spring, summers in Provence, you hear about them always. My friends, do not discount the off seasons. Spending my second consecutive fall in France, I cannot adequately convey the serenity that sweeps the countryside during these quieter times.
Literally translating into the “language of yes,” the Languedoc keeps its word. Yes to elderly couples walking nowhere in particular, hand in hand in their peacoats and berets. Yes to natives and visitors taking the time to understand one another. Yes to an appreciation of slow living, of rest, relish, and an unhurried absorption of everyday good.
Tracing the Mediterranean from the Cote d’Azur to Spain, both chateaux St. Pierre de Serjac and Capitoul immerse their visitors in south of France quintessence. Seaside villages out of a Monet, biking trails out of a Peter Mayle novel. Hamlets lined with olive groves that lead to umbrellas of bustling, baguette boasting al fresco markets, boulangeries, buckets of lavender and bountiful cheeses. Sailboat lined beaches, cypress flanked castles and rolling, roving vineyards punctuate in places to vacate, collectively creating a walk through a poem. An alchemy, a journey, communally, we have maybe never needed more.
