Château Richeux – Les Maisons de Bricourt

Château Richeux®, a large villa built in the 1920s, stands in an expanse of moorland facing Mont Saint-Michel. The sea, the sky, the earth – the endless hues of blue, green and grey merge into the obvious beauty of nature and the song of the wind.

The place is known as “Serenity at the Crack of Dawn”: the sunrises here are unforgettable. Eleven spacious rooms with bay views and two apartments, together with Coquillage, the Maisons Bricourt restaurant, make up this singular and refined sanctuary.

Château Richeux is first and foremost a home, where the crew of Maisons de Bricourt look after their guests with discretion and elegance.

Spend the evening in the lounge listening to the whistling of the wind while enjoying a grog or an infusion of spices, or take a stroll along the shore towards the port of Cancale while contemplating Mont Saint-Michel.

The bay of Mont Saint-Michel is a magical place. Here, the relationship between the moon and the sun is so intense that it gives rise to the largest tidal range seen anywhere in the world, as though the heavens were breathing.

LES RIMAINS
A haven located on the cliffs of Cancale, Les Rimains® is a boutique hotel overlooking the sea. Four warm, romantic rooms are basked in Mont-Saint-Michel Bay’s magical light. Designed in harmony with the tides, every room face the sea.

Simple and elegant, they will give you the feeling that you have always lived there. Depending on the season, the microclimate often allows for breakfast to be enjoyed in the garden.

At the end of garden there is a coastal path, known here as the “lovers’ trail” or the “smuggler’s path”. It offers the most beautiful views over the bay and the oyster beds, clearly visible in the translucent water.

Bordered by gorse, pines and fragrant eucalyptus, the path offers an initiation into the local area. In one direction, the path leads to the nearby port of Cancale. In the other, it takes us to the cliffs of Pointe du Groin, towering over the open sea.

FERME DU VENT
The farm’s magic is sown everywhere by the wind itself. Ferme du Vent® (the “Farm of the Winds”) is not ostentatious, yet instantly recognisable. Its lines can be taken in in one glance: the imposing Celtic silhouettes have been carefully and respectfully restored.

Six kled® (from the Breton for “wind shelter”) where one can live in harmony with the elements, laid out as if by magic. Anything that may interrupt our inner flow is swept away. There is no wifi or television.

Turn off your mobile phone and enjoy a place that heightens the senses. That smells of iodine and wood. That is a delight to the eyes. That whispers in our ears. That caresses serenity. But that never forgets to indulge its guests.

Beautiful cottages that offer the very best in terms of hospitality, the 6 kleds of the Ferme du Vent are dressed in wood and rough stone. Some have comfortable bathtubs to relax in, facing the sea. Cosy warmth is provided by a fireplace or a wood-burning stove.

The light floods them all thanks to their large “tableau” windows, the views from which are like wonderful paintings. The Bains Celtiques® (“Celtic Baths”) are nestled in the main farmhouse of the Ferme du Vent.

At the Ferme du Vent, you can choose your menu the day before or on the morning itself. It is delivered to your private kitchen in the evening at the time of your choosing. A degustation in a moment of blissful intimacy.

As far as our eyes can see, the living world, with no disturbance whatsoever: a conservatory of quince trees and a patch of cultivated flowers, a kitchen garden providing a rich natural habitat for hares and weasels, in the middle of wild grasses.

Everything points towards the empty shore. The kaleidoscopic sea serves as a canvas. The extraordinary lunar clock signals the ebbs and tides of the bay and watches over everything and everyone.

A Viking well serves as a compass between the home port and infinity. Pastel and turquoise hues. Ochre and green. Anthracite grey, pearl, blue, almond and rose. A choreography of clouds, mist and light causes the magnetic Mont Saint-Michel to appear and disappear over and over again.

GÎTES MARINS
Jane Roellinger designed the Gîtes Marins® (“Seafront Lodges”) as the holiday homes she had always dreamed of for entertaining friends and enjoying quality family time. Each Gîte Marin lodge can be rented for a few days, a whole week or a longer stay.

In these large seaside cabins located in the Rimains Garden, the furniture and decoration are both simple and authentic, with beautiful living quarters that serve as kitchen, dining area and lounge. These small seafront houses are organized like ships, and are equipped with everything you need for an enjoyable stay.

The neighbouring vegetable garden overlooking the sea is cultivated by Frédéric, the gardener. Guests can go and pick vegetables and herbs to cook with. The terrace is equipped with a barbecue and everything else you may need to enjoy a meal or relax in a sun lounger.

Every morning, a basket of fruit, dairy products, bread and brioche made by the baker during the night, are placed on the doorstep, to offer you the pleasure of a real Breton breakfast.

The garden descends towards the smuggler’s path, giving access to walks along the cliffs, next to the emerald sea, from the port of Cancale to Saint-Malo. The cottage names are in keeping with the maritime theme: Bernique (Limpet), Bigorneau (Periwinkle), Crevette (Shrimp), Olivette (Queen Scallop) and Touline (Towline).

LE COQUILLAGE – MAISONS DE BRICOURT’S RESTAURANT
At Château Richeux®, guests are received for dinner and lunch at the Coquillage restaurant. Hugo Roellinger loves to share his cooking, which he elaborates together with his right-hand man, Jêrome Aumont, and the kitchen crew.

Aged 31, Hugo is devoted to the ideal of the artisan cook and strives to protect nature and its riches by defending local small-scale fishermen and farmers as well as spice growers from afar.

His cuisine reflects the taste of living here, the taste of the sea, the bocage and seafaring adventures. Seaweed, spices and shells. His culinary quest is to create flavours that evoke Ocean abysses and sea spray carried on the wind, a quest that earned him two Michelin stars in 2019.

Le Coquillage® offers a moment of timelessness that unfolds according to the ballet of the actors of the room, in the cosy atmosphere of this 1920s villa. The windows of the dining room are like picture frames, displaying the constantly changing landscape of the bay’s skies and the foreshore’s sketched outlines.

The bread served at Maisons de Bricourt is kneaded and baked in the wooden bakehouse situated at the entrance of Château Richeux. The baker works with local and organic flour from heirloom grain varieties and uses natural sourdough leavening methods.

A walk in the Château Richeux park, which runs downhill towards the beach, is an opportunity to daydream, play hide and seek, or move between the raised stones of the Potager Celtique (“Celtic Kitchen Garden”), where the aromatic herbs are grown.

Twenty-six heirloom varieties apple blossom are pollinated by bees from hives neighbouring the orchard. Sheep, cows, donkeys and frogs bring life to this extraordinary garden.

BAINS CELTIQUES
Located in the main farmhouse, Bains Celtiques® (“Celtic Baths”) are striking in that raw materials are omnipresent. One enters via the barn, where sits a magnificent three-hearth granite fireplace. Surrounded by stone and solid wood, a door leads to the baths.

Covered or uncovered, they offer water, heat and light, punctuated by openings onto the panoramic views. They have been created for a tête-à-tête with the tides and the cosmos. In all weather, one can swim against the current, nose in the air, or lean on the ledges and contemplate the landscape.

Water washes our worries away. The intense heat of the Wood Shelter (which offers the dry heat of a sauna) and the Grotto (offering the humid heat of a hammam) will make short work of any toxins. We leave the baths with body and spirit cleansed: the potency of the place has healing powers of its own.

Its tranquillity is preserved by limiting access to the baths to just four people at a time. The process of renewal is set in motion. The backbone of the wellness offering is the reflexology care provided by therapist Gwenn Libouban.

GWENN’S HOUSE REFLEXOLOGY CARE
On the right of the Celtic Baths®, a small door opens onto Gwenn’s house. In this land of telluric energy, reflexology works its magic, turning darkness into light. It is practiced by the therapist Gwenn Libouban. Here we can regain our footing. No standard protocol applies.

Everyone is unique and treated as such. She uses her know-how to give the feet that are entrusted to her in their energy back. She creates a sense of lightness, focus, and harmony. She touches, listens, and guides.

She helps us realign and move forward. Her careful touch uses the feet to open a gateway to a new lightness that refocuses the body and soothes the spirit. At the meeting point between the sun and the moon, foot reflexology provides inner restoration.

It offers a breath that connects the energy of the lower body with that of the upper body, reviving the bridge between heaven and earth. Gwenn’s care helps us realign, recover and move forward. There is no risk of getting lost on this inner path.

BAINS CELTIQUES-ROELLINGER®
The Roellinger family has designed personal care products that draw on natural mineral, plant and marine resources, which are combined, based on their properties, with essential oils extracted from exceptional spices.

Each cosmetic is formulated following the principle of “isotonia”, combining spring water from Molène Island and seawater, and active ingredients from Breton agroresources: brown seaweed, fine salt, hemp oil, apple seed oil and oyster shells. Combining local ingredients with exotic spices is an age-old tradition in the region.

GRAIN DE VANILLE
PÂTISSERIE / CHOCOLATE / ICE CREAM / TEAHOUSE
Together, Olivier Roellinger and Yannick Gautier have created Grain de Vanille®, a temple to sweet treats located in the upper part of Cancale. With his wife Fernanda and his crew, Yannick hand-crafts and cooks a variety of delicacies daily.

Grain de Vanille® is also a meeting place: a few tables, a fireplace, a small sunny terrace, some books on the local area and its adventurers.

A place to go for a cup of tea, a hot chocolate or simply a good coffee, followed by some small pastries and cream puffs fresh out of the oven, or a velvety ice cream. A cosy, warm, vanilla-scented haven.

VENT DE VANILLE
Vent de Vanille® is a laboratory of ice cream and a manufacturing workshop of mille-feuilles located above the wide beach of Dinard. Juliette and Nicolas from the Maisons de Bricourt’s® crew are the figures of this new venue and they are accompanied by Grain de Vanille®.

The ice creams are made with organic whole milk from small Breton cows, the Froments du Léon. The sorbets are turbined with seasonal fruits and flavoured with spices Epices Roellinger®.

All the mille-feuilles are made under your eyes. Vanilla, cinnamon, muscades, cardamom and rare peppers from far away play with the flavors of Brittany. Ice cream, sorbets and mille-feuilles are enjoyed on the terrace, at the beach or at home. Vent de Vanille® is the taste of a holiday at the sea.

Website: www.maisons-de-bricourt.com

Rooms: 11

Price: from 195 EUR per night