Hotel Richer de Belleval

Relais & Châteaux properties favour a particular alchemy of intimacy and heritage, and Hotel Richer de Belleval delivers both. The 17th-century building occupies high ground in Montpellier's old quarter, a city whose medieval bones and Renaissance swagger remain palpable despite decades of rapid growth. This is a university town that has shed students and scholars for eight centuries, its oldest medical school still teaching, its narrow streets still opening onto sudden squares where Louis XIV surveys the scene from bronze horseback.

The Centre Historique feels lived-in rather than preserved, a web of honey-coloured stone facades and wrought-iron balconies where bakeries and wine bars occupy ground floors. Place de La Canourgue, steps from the hotel, anchors the neighbourhood with its plane trees and fountains. The Musée Fabre, established in 1825, holds one of France's strongest provincial art collections, while Château de Flaugergues offers a window into aristocratic life among its vineyards just beyond the city centre.

Montpellier sits 12 kilometres from the Mediterranean, close enough for salt air to drift inland on summer evenings. Montpellier-Méditerranée Airport lies eight kilometres southeast. The city's tram network links the historic core to the coast and outlying districts, though the old town rewards those who arrive on foot.

On the property, Jacques and Laurent Pourcel run two distinct experiences: Jardin des Sens, their one-Michelin-starred modern cuisine restaurant where technique and local ingredients meet, and La Canourgue, a glass-roofed bistro set in the hotel's seventeenth-century courtyard, all cornices and crystal chandeliers with cooking equally refined. The Pourcel brothers source from Occitanie's farmers and fishermen, translating Mediterranean abundance into dishes that shift with the seasons. Book a table at Jardin des Sens for the full evolution of their style, or settle into La Canourgue for something equally accomplished but less formal. Pierre Gagnaire's two-starred Duende, forty-six kilometres away in Nîmes, channels bullfighting and flamenco into culinary theatre inside the Hotel Imperator.

The Château de Flaugergues stands on the city's edge, its eighteenth-century salons and gardens open for visits. Marché du Bassin Jacques Cœur, just over two kilometres from the hotel, fills with farmers from the surrounding garrigue twice a week, selling fig jam, tapenade, and melons from Vauvert. The Pont du Gard, sixty-five kilometres north, remains the most arresting piece of Roman engineering in France, its three-tiered arches still spanning the Gardon gorge nearly two millennia after construction. Wineries dot the countryside within ten kilometres: Domaine de Manse and Mas d'Ismard both welcome visitors for tastings of local AOC wines.

Summer in Montpellier means light that bounces hard off stone facades and squares that empty during the afternoon heat, temperatures climbing to 29°C in July and August. Rain is scarce, the city turning dusty and amber as cicadas fill the evenings.

Spring and autumn soften the extremes. April through June and September offer warmth without the crush of high season, though September can bring sudden downpours that clear as quickly as they arrive. The streets regain their rhythm, cafes spilling onto pavements.

Winter remains mild by northern standards, highs around 11°C, but rain comes often from November through March. The university term keeps the city animated, even as the Mediterranean cools and the outdoor markets thin. Late spring, when the plane trees leaf out and temperatures hover near 20°C, is ideal for exploring both the city and the surrounding wine country.