CASTLE REVIEW and food review…read more
Overnight not recommended but day visit is fine
Important: Very dangerous Stair case with 56 unsafe steps to the 2nd level of rooms. In the US nobody would have signed off on that! No warning signs.
Our group arrived in the early evening after an exhausting day travel with extensive wine and food tastings in late October 2015. (The castle is 1 + hour away from Carcassonne and there was road closure and major construction delaying our arrival.) The front entrance had no parking for our small bus so we drove to the back with a "handicap" entrance sign. We were greeted very friendly and all the staff helped with the luggage.
We walked to the reception but no person present. After a while we were giving our room keys for the 2nd level of the Castle. My room 201 was very, very small and I could not walk to the window to open it. I crawled over the bed. The shower was very small too. The "front" entrance had a nice seating area but no permanent light. The light will only stay on for a couple of minutes and you have to go to the switch. Everybody from our group had to walk through this area which generates a lot of noise. I checked the other larger rooms from our group and one upgraded guest complaint of a bad smell at the entrance and in some other areas in the castle. The smell in his room was fixed for the night. Another of our guest's complaint about room 205 which was very, very small too. Both room face the raging river which can be annoying during the night.
I went to the front desk to meet the Owner and manager to discuss a room change. I stated that I had to pay extra for single accommodation and received the "worst room" Some back and forth he agreed to change me to the 1st level room number 111. WOW, what money can buy, a wonderful very large room fit for a King. But! The very large very high ceiling room had only a very small radiator under the window that couldn't heat the room all night long. I froze to death, got sick most likely from the inside of the 14 feet high chimney walls. We had Mistral winds and rain and only 42F. I had to check out the next morning to not further any sickness. (No refund for 2 additional nights received) I walked the premises and found some of the room's people complaint about in prior reviews. Large room on 1st level converted into numerous rooms - not sound proof. Two small patios one with a dead pidgin. One medium sized conference room with an iron board. (Light and heating source not checked). Nice bar on ground level. Reception on ground level. Dining room on midlevel that has 2 parts. The 2nd part watch your head! Very low arch to walk through. Dining room nicely deco but the 2nd part has a lot of echo and it is very difficult to keep the conversation on a low voice level. During our dinner 1 1/2 hours the younger kids next to us decided to be bored and sang a song for their parents in a foreign language (Swedish) and nobody from the stuff addressed the singing that they are not at McDonalds. So we waited 3 minutes and continued our private conversations. Dinner was included in our reservation and the cook should take a break from cooking! Fixed 3 course menu no choices. 1st half a cream cheese pack rolled into cooked zucchini slices (Sushi style). Nicely presented but way too much cheese. Main course matched potatoes on top of some bird smash - comments: looked like cat food... with a red sauce that had way too much salt... cook must have been in love? Nobody came during the main course to check on us - Most got returned. No other choice. Desert was great. Recommendation for Management, take both starter and main course off the menu! Also, if you can't serve hot food for 12 people, than have table of 6 and have stuff help with serving of hot food. The main dish was served 3 plates at a time with only one server! The women were served first and the food was cold by the time we got the last plates.
Wifi is hard to get by due to the thick walls. Management should purchase a lot more routers.
Again, hotel not recommended. Castle visit for tea or coffee may be worth the long drive.
