La Casa Païral in Collioure, a charming 4* hotel in Languedoc-Roussillon

Alix, the hotel owner, spent her childhood, hand in hand with her mother, hunting for bargains at flea markets and pushing open the doors of antique shops to unearth the decorative elements for later use at La Casa Païral. She knows where each rug and each piece of furniture comes from, she knows the story behind each ornament and can remember the tales told by their former owners. Like everyone who has travelled a lot, she knows how important the notion of a home port is, the reassuring knowledge that a home is waiting for you. A wonderfully immobile place, where things have meaning, a personal and sentimental value. La Casa Païral is a challenge to time, almost an anomaly in a fast-paced world, a reassuring and sustainable island in a sea of programmed obsolescence.