Château de Messey

Château de Messey is one of the best bed and breakfasts in our guide. To begin with, the region is gorgeous—especially fascinating for wine buffs as this is the heart of the Chardonnay wine-producing district. Also, the bed and breakfast’s setting is of fairy-tale quality—the adorable stone house, banked by flowers and accented with green shutters, nestles on the edge of a tiny mill stream where a weeping willow shades a rowboat beckoning guests for a lazy excursion. Breakfast and sometimes dinner are usually served outside in this hopelessly romantic setting. To add icing to the cake, the spacious guestrooms are all beautifully decorated in antiques and have excellent tiled bathrooms. (For longer stays there are cottages, rented by the week.) Even if the above did not entice you to visit, the extraordinary hospitality of the Schaefer family would alone suffice as reason to come. As an added bonus, Delphine is a superb cook. Although termed a château, the bed and breakfast is located in a pretty building below the château where the workers used to live (some rooms in the château are available for rent). The charming Dumont family owns the château (and the bed and breakfast) and can arrange a visit to their winery, which produces a superb Chardonnay.