Chateau des Ducs de Joyeuse, BW Signature Collection

Wonderful hotel in a real chateau, with all the terrific ambiance that entails. Great welcome, with Romain speaking fluent English. Fabulous restaurant in the courtyard of the hotel, with attentive waiters (Xavier in particular). Scrumptious dishes (only exception was the ceviche, a bit lacking in flavor). We hope to return for the holidays, Christmas and New Year's.

To start with I would like to say that we have been coming here for 15 years and before it became a Corporate business it was outstanding, you were made to feel so welcome. It was so lovely and all staff were very attentive then. We always looked forward to the experience of dining in the fabulous courtyard, it had such ambiance. How it changed this year. We arrived after having driven 2 hours up from the coast to be greeted with "Dinner is off tonight, you will have to go elsewhere" and were given a couple of choices , some meant driving again. We were told it was because their fridges had broken. ( we did end up going to a fabulous local restaurant where our custom was appreciated) The female staff member then took us the wrong way to our room and it was extremely hot by then. We booked bed and breakfast last year to stay at the Chateau and we booked a table for dinner in January this year. We went to the bar area to have a drink, another place where there used to be oodles of ambiance, to eventually be told by the maître d' "I'll get someone to serve you" why he couldn't, I don't know, as he had just served someone else? A young lad came out, who didn't speak French and had trouble getting our drinks, the maître d' had to show him how to do it. We noticed later in the evening that 2 a large tables were being set for Dinner for some other guests. When checking out we were asked if our stay was good and I explained that it was not and asked why we were told we could not have the dinner experience but others could. We were told by the manager it was because they had booked half board. Is room, breakfast and dinner not half board? We had this booked a good 6 months prior to our visit. I'm just so disappointed that this piece of our annual homage to Couiza has been spoiled as we will not go back again to the Chateau. So sad.

Abbiamo scelto questo chateau hotel, vista la sua posizione strategica nel cuore della zona che volevamo visitare. Si presenta imponente e caratteristico con le sue torri rotonde, in un piccolo parco sulle rive del fiume Aude. Siamo stati accolti con grande gentilezza dalla proprietaria, che ci ha assegnato le camere e spiegato i servizi dell'hotel. Inoltre con molta gentilezza ha cambiato le camere inizialmente assegnate al secondo piano, con altre al primo piano per favorire le signore con qualche problema di deambulazione. Abbiamo soggiornato per 4 notti in mezza pensione ed il livello della cucina, dei vini e del servizio sono sempre stati eccellenti. Ne conserveremo senz'altro un ricordo molto piacevole.