insideSUSSEX Magazine Issue 18 - August 2016 | Page 69

HEALTH+WELLNESS

Subverting the notion that excellent food and
wellness can’t happily coexist hand in hand, it’s
not just foodies that frequent Michel Guérard’s
bucolic wonderland, but the health-conscious
too, who are catered for at The Ferme Thermale
spa. A rustic, alpine-looking building that
emanates a strong smell of sulphur made mild
by the surrounding air’s floral notes, the wooden
former farmhouse is divided into 21 individual
treatment booths, between which guests are
peacefully rotated for ten-minute treatments,
pausing before each new one to luxuriate by a
big fire and sip cosily at a hot or cold infusion.
A combination of hot spring showers, wraps,
massages, and, my personal favourite, a huge
white thermal mud bath in which one floats
utterly weightless, it is an intimate, revitalising
experience with countless medical benefits, but
that feels anything but prescriptive.
Our post-lunch pampering was rewarded yet
further with a four-course meal from Michel
Guérard’s exquisite, three-star Grande Cuisine
Naturaliste Menu, each course chosen for us
by the man himself. Sipping champagne in
Loulou’s Lounge Bar prior to being seated,
Michel came over to introduce himself and I

was genuinely star struck. I wanted to leap
up and hug him; thankfully, I didn’t. A delicate
garden soup with truffle was followed by roast,
country-style lobster and then the most tender
wood-fired beef I have ever laid eyes, let alone
lips on, before proceedings were concluded by
a light-as-air garden verbena soufflé.
Before eating at a three-star Michelin restaurant,
I wondered what all the fuss could possibly be
about. How wrong I was - even when controlling
calories – and there is no better advert for Michel
Guérard’s surprisingly indulgent gourmand
philosophy than himself. A stay at Les Prés
d’Eugénie is about relaxation, progress, and
results, all measured with clinical precision in an
environment that couldn’t be less clinical, but is
instead homely, warm and wonderful.
Les Prés d’Eugénie
334 Rue René Vielle
40320 Eugénie-les-Bains
France
www.michelguerard.com
@michelguerard

69