Remember that famous scene in When Harry Met Sally? This is the spa world’s version of it. Sitting in the elegant restaurant of this renowned hotel while the twinkly-eyed chef-patron Michel Guérard – 86 years young, as slim as Fred Astaire and as energetic as a toddler – works the room, the only thing to do is turn to the waiter and say: ‘I’ll have what he’s having.’ Fortunately, that’s possible and not one single mouthful will feel like a hardship. Guérard has held three Michelin stars at this Gascony hideaway for a phenomenal 42 years. And while the inspectors and foodies never get past the full-fat foie-gras experience, he sticks to his cuisine minceur slimming programme, with calorie-controlled dishes that he has been refining since the 1970s in consultation with doctors and dieticians. His campaigning zeal is every bit as honed as his culinary talents and he is on a mission to prove that healthy food does not require any compromise on taste. There is simply nowhere better to shed a few pounds in style.
The hotel is a quintessential French estate with buildings spread over manicured gardens, fountains punctuating the stone paths, the swimming pool and tennis court hidden behind hedges. There are 33 bedrooms in the 19th-century villa and a dozen more divided between an 18th-century auberge and a 17th-century convent. All are decorated with a light country look, daintily carved dark wood furniture, toile de Jouy fabrics and vases of fresh flowers. It’s a civilised start. Breakfast is served in bed: coffee, grapefruit juice, muesli, breads and jams, all adding up to less than 300 calories. Treatments are taken in a Hansel and Gretel-style farmhouse surrounded by herbaceous borders. Here guests pull on smart dressing gowns of waffled cotton that button up to the neck, and sip delicious herbal teas fireside before wallowing in scented baths, sweating it out in steam rooms and submitting to body-sculpting hydro-jet massages so painful they feel like a crowd-dispersing water cannon.