Situated in the Loire Valley within a private estate, Hotel Château du Grand-Lucé is a ridiculously romantic hotel. Set among some 80 acres of formal gardens, lakes and ancient white oak forest, the chateau was built in 1764 for Jacques Pineau de Viennay III (aka Baron de Lucé), who sadly died not long after the building was complete — rumor has it, he suffered a heart attack after witnessing the sheer beauty of the chateau. There are just 17 rooms, each as sumptuous as the last, but the top key is undoubtedly the Baron’s Suite. The 2,120-sq-ft, one-bedroom suite was, as the name suggests, built for the Baron and is suitably grandiose: 17-ft ceilings, Versailles patterned oak floors, massive casement windows, antique furniture and gilded touches. The suite has three entrances, one of which is a private entrance leading directly from the west garden (the marble bathroom with freestanding tub has pretty views of the garden). Every inch of the suite is splendid, from the private library dressed in green and stocked with French literature to the Salon Chinois with its canvas-covered walls painted by Jean-Baptiste Pillement.