The breakfast buffet includes sausages, bacon, eggs and garlic-laced potatoes as well as the usual French breads, pastries, cereals, cold cuts and delicious homemade jams. Enjoy it in the all-white restaurant, adjoining glass conservatory or, when weather permits, al fresco in the romantic courtyard garden.

Lunch and dinner is served daily in the elegant restaurant, Les Caryatides (mains from €25/£22). Sparkling chandeliers, Louis XVI medallion chairs and Gien porcelain emblazoned with Alfred Sommier’s initials add instant period glamour and chef Franco Miotto uses seasonal produce in his modern French cuisine. The monkfish, in a buttery, Matcha green tea-laced cream with artichoke purée, is delicious. End with coffee and a digestif in the snug wood-panelled bar, Les Plans, where the original house plans hang.