Boutique beauty

Tim Bell shares his experience of starting a boutique hotel and spa business in the forests of Puy-de-Dôme

- Tim Bell

I would be lying if I said this was a spur-of-the-moment decision. The dream of running my own gaff, nestled deep in the French countryside, had been nibbling away in my overactive grey matter since the early 90s.

Perhaps these foundations can be blamed on my parents who always crossed La Manche every late July in the 70s and 80s for our family holidays. There’d be five of us, all crammed into a Toyota Corolla with a tent, some questionable chairs, cooking equipment, badminton rackets and an antique shuttlecock with the airborne grace of a brick. Dad, armed with his AA map, was no Marco Polo and obviously too money-conscious to contemplate using a péage.

But on reflection, at least we saw pretty much all of France.

LEAVING LANCASHIRE

Fast forward 20 odd years and my love for everything Gallic was still strong enough to lure me regularly onto the D-roads of rural France. Only this time, I was behind the wheel and not spending my precious holidays in a retro tent. At this point I’d also started making my way up the ladder in hotel management – a tough, demanding, yet personally rewarding industry where no one day resembles the next. The seeds, planted long ago, were now sprouting.