After about two months of a very frantic work schedule I’d been counting down the hours, minutes and seconds until a weekend away in Bordeaux with one of my best friends.
We had a couple of nights in the city mainly pottering from shop to restaurant to cafe on bikes with Cycle Bordeaux. But what we were really looking forward to was our night at Les Sources de Caudalie – a Spa, beautiful hotel and wine estate in the Pessac-Leognan wine region about a 15 miles drive into the country.
I use a lot of the French skincare brand Caudalie in my kit particularly the Beauty Elixir as a skin refresher and the Sorbet-Creme as a light ‘suits all skin types’ moisturiser so I knew a little bit about the brand. It is based on the anti-oxidant power of grape-seed polyphenols, a bi-product of wine production.
In the 1990′s a very successful French couple (who’d met on the National Ski team as you do) sold up all their business interests and bought the Chateau Smith Haute-Lafite vineyard and turned it into an established wine estate. They have two daughters; one runs the utterly gorgeous Les Sources de Caudalie hotel and Spa on the grounds of the estate and the other is in charge of the now international Caudalie skincare brand. So a pretty high achieving family all round!
Firstly Les Source de Caudalie is possibly the MOST relaxing place I’ve ever been to. Ever. It’s clearly achieved it’s 5* status by aiming at perfection. Everything from the temperature in the guest rooms to the luxurious bathrooms to the bed linen is pretty much perfect and the service was discreet and warm.
The hotel is a series of ‘rustic-luxe’ buildings around a lake and surrounded by vines. From the hotel you can see Chateau Smith Haute-Lafit and the Spa. The hotel is dotted with armchairs, art books and antiques so lots of places to read a book or relax
We arrived and had a glass of wine in the bar before retiring to our suite (obvs) for another glass, jump on the bed, have long baths and discuss what we were going to wear for dinner. Part of our package included a meal in the Michelin starred restaurant La Grand’Vigne and the food looked and tasted like a work of art.
The following morning we had a luxurious breakfast in bed (one of the highlights of the trip for me), had a walk around the estate then headed to the Vinotherapie Spa.
The Spa looks like a cross between a country retreat and a Swiss medi-spa. It has an outdoor pool and jacuzzi (sadly closed out of season when we were there) as well as an indoor pool filled with water pumped from a hot spring, a Turkish style Hamaan steam room and day beds, herbal teas, lemon water and magazines dotted about.
I had the Vinsource treatment which focused on sculpting and moisturising using fresh grapes by a lovely and very professional therapist called Laetitia.The treatment had a lovely rhythm to it mainly due to Laetitia’s expert facial massage and cleansing techniques. It was utterly relaxing and I felt like I was slowly sinking into the bed.
I DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE and am looking for an excuse to go there for a week as soon as possible!
Have you tried any Caudalie products?
Jodie x
