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WHEN I was small and occasionally naughty my beloved Grandma would tell me that if I wanted to go to Heaven I’d have to be a very, very good boy. As I was convinced she was an angel in disguise and obviously an expert on the subject I believed her implicitly. So mostly I was good.
A long lifetime later I’m still striving to follow her advice. And now I know she was correct, because I’ve already been to Heaven. What’s more I know how to get there. You simply fly into Nice and if you’ve done your homework you’ll find one of the Twelve Apostles, in the form of a limousine chauffeur, waiting to transport you into that other world. The destination: the new Four Seasons Resort in the foothills of the Southern Alps and equidistant, about 30 minutes, from Nice and Cannes.
Known as Terre Blanche, it has Michelin-starred cuisine, sumptuous facilities and accommodation, all accentuated by impeccable service and is spread over 665 acres of wooded hills in the Pays de Fayence. It’s a place guaranteed to soothe all the senses and awaken a few you weren’t aware of. Life here assumes a different hue, almost a golden glow, although that could be a by-product of the unique Provencal light. Add two bewitching golf courses created by David Thomas and you have what may be the finest such resort in Europe.
Indeed, there’s only one problem in spending a few days here; two problems, upon reflection. The first is you won’t want to leave; the second is that the experience will spoil you for every other golf resort you know or are likely to visit. It is, in a word, Heavenly. Romance is a natural by-product at Terre Blanche so if you have a major anniversary imminent here’s the perfect spot to celebrate.
A word of caution is apposite: it’s not inexpensive. Such quality has its price but you don’t visit Terre Blanche to economise: you go there for the all-pervading elegance, the understated opulence and the ethereal ambience, to gather life-long memories of undiluted pleasure.
So sell the pig, hock the house or rob a bank and with the proceeds treat your Best Beloved to a few days of sumptuous extravagance she’ll savour for ever. You, too, will come away with stories to tell at the 19th and with sufficient Brownie points to see you through the next five years…
And by then you’ll have returned to Terre Blanche more than once, I’ll wager. It’s quite addictive.
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The elegantly suited chauffeur waiting in the airport arrivals hall gives the first clue that something special is afoot. The second clue comes 35 minutes later as the limousine turns into the courtyard that fronts onto the hotel’s entrance and you spot a cluster of people by the main door.
No, they’re not guests chatting: it’s an assistant manager and his team waiting to welcome you. Now you realise why the chauffeur gave a location call and mentioned your name a minute before. And why every member of staff you meet knows your name. It’s quite un-nerving initially, then re-assuring.
The check-in formalities are completed post-haste and a waiting porter whisks you to your apartment accommodation in a golf cart. Once there, the sounds of ecstatic appreciation from your Best Beloved will indicate that all is well with the world.
“Wow,” mine murmured. “What a bathroom. Have you ever seen anything like it?” I had to confess that I hadn’t and it endorsed my long-held theory that the quality of any resort or hotel accommodation is encapsulated in its bathrooms.
This one was exquisite, as was everything about the apartment: the dressing room, the sitting room with every facility, the expansive bedroom with doors leading to a secluded terrace giving views over the wooded hills of Southern Provence. The three days ahead became a joyful prospect.
Terre Blanche has 110 guest rooms in all: a number of them are in the five star hotel but the majority are scattered around the property in 43 villas divided into luxurious apartments of one to three bed rooms. It’s a rambling village in a garden, set between the hotel on the high ground and the golf clubhouse in the valley below. Reflecting the distinctive light, ochre colour dominates, in the exterior of the villas and the dry-stone walling that edges the beds of flowering shrubbery and exotic plants. There’s a landscape waiting to be painted around every corner. Artists and photographers could go quite potty!
The resort was three years in construction and the first guests were welcomed in April 2004. Awards began cascading in almost immediately, for the first golf course, then the restaurant and then the resort itself, via the Gault Millaut guide and M. Michelin, who promptly awarded a star to "Faventia", the principal restaurant in the hotel.
There’s a second restaurant on the hotel terrace and a third, also al fresco and giving views of the golf course, on the clubhouse terrace. Lunch here, in between a round on each of the two courses, would be part of a memorable day and, yes, non-resident players are welcome on a fee paying basis.
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