Domaine de Barive

The Domain is a first class and very comfortable hotel, so the following suggestions are just detail; however in the search for perfection you may wish to take account of the following: 1. We didn't like the electronic menu and wine list; it's a silly gimmick; even the waiter could find things in it; we would prefer an old fashioned book style menu and wine list. We come to France because we love the traditional French ways of doing things; any innovation risks making things worse. 2. We wanted to choose wines by the glass but no wines by the glass were listed; we were told that the sommelier would choose for us; we do not like the implication that we are so ignorant that we need someone else to choose our wine; in the event the sommelier was very interesting and helpful, but we would have preferred this to be our choice. 3. We prefer not to have to listen to music while we dine, especially the sort of terrible modern music that was being played. 4. The room was very comfortable and the fact that the bathroom had its own window was a welcome change from the usual. However the fact that the light came on in the toilet automatically was most unhelpful. When we need to visit the toilet at night we do not want a light to go on and do not want it wake up our spouse; we were unaware of this until late in the evening so did not call reception; we managed to disable the light ourselves. Also there was only one 'seat' for luggage; most couples will have two cases, so where do we put the second one? Usually we end up balancing it on a chair. 5. Sadly, as with every hotel in France these days, coffee is no longer served by a waiter; we have to queue at a machine which requires attendance at a short residential course to understand how to operate it. If we could know which hotels serve real coffee properly, we would always prefer them when booking. 6. In summary, when booking a hotel, we are less interested in facilities than the following, which are our booking criteria: a. Is it quiet, so we can get to sleep? (It was) b. Can we open the windows so we can breath? (we could) c. is the room large enough to put our bags down and walk around without tripping over things? (It was); d. Can we get to the bathroom in the night without waking our spouse or hitting something in the darkness? (we could, thanks to the window) e. Will we have to listed to moronic music at dinner (unfortunately we did) e. Do lights come on when we have not asked them to? (unfortunately they did) f. Can we get dinner without driving to another location? (we could) g. Is real coffee served by a human being at breakfast? (Unfortunately it wasn't) h. Can we decide how we want things without an electronic machine thinking it knows better? (a mixed picture at the Domain)

We only found this hotel a few weeks before our holiday started and it was the best find of the lot. Great staff, wonderful room and lovely food. We wished we could have stayed longer and will want to come back before too long.

Bird mess all over the terrace furniture and sun loungers. Sauna didn’t work. We ate in the restaurant which was pretentious and not worth the money, and full of dogs barking at each other. Not what you want for a high end dinner setting. Our room was FULL of insects and beetles, in the bath, on the floor and even IN THE BED!!!! (Photos attached). So bad we had to change rooms at 2am. When we spoke to the short bald man on reception (the owner) he was extremely arrogant and so rude he shouldn’t be working in hospitality. Told us he now had 2 rooms to clean and didn’t care what we had to say and walked off. Shocking! A pattern of behaviour that you can see in other negative reviews too. Cannot recommend. I imagine there will be a rude arrogant reply below shortly.

in the countryside, just north of Reims, a convenient location to break up the journey from London. Worth staying longer to enjoy the lovely grounds and spa.

I’m not sure what was more shocking the hotel and facilities or lack of ! Or the response from the hotel owner who basically called me a liar and he wasn’t even there. Good job I took pictures to back up my claims. Disgusting treatment of guests, facilities which they highlight most were in poor condition or not working… no bar staff, paint and up keep missing from pool and set around the property show just how much they care about it… still using stock images from when it opened I guess. Not the reality !!

You have to leave the main highway and drive 15 miles to get to this wonderful old farmhouse, completely renovated and transfoormed in a hotel. The lanscapes are beautiful, the gardens and decoration also. We stayed in a very nice room in what were the stables. Bed, linnens, furniture, bathroom and shower. All perfect. Only “but” is the Domaine is isolated, not many places where you can eat. Fortunatly the place has a nice restaurant. We were there on a monday, the kitchen was closed. We were offeed a fixed menu for 60 euros per person. The food was just ok. Heated for us. We found it quite expensive for what it was… Overall great experience. Worth the détour