Luxury Hotels Atlas / Places / France / Port-en-Bessin / Château La Chenevière
Château La Chenevière
Port-en-Bessin, Normandy, France · Independent · Core Luxury
The Gosset family raised this manor around 1750 on a hemp estate at Port-en-Bessin, a name taken from chaff, and held it for 133 years. German officers used it as a headquarters; after D-Day, American and British troops moved in, and Resistance fighter Armand Lapierre is remembered for cutting the nearby lines. The Dicker family bought it in 1988 and made a hotel of the house behind Gold Beach, twenty-nine rooms in a twelve-hectare park.
- 29 rooms
- Opened 1988
- Neighborhood: Escures
About Château La Chenevière
- Chateau La Cheneviere began as a 17th-century hemp farming estate before the Gosset family built the current manor around 1750 on land named for hemp chaff.
- German officers used the manor as a headquarters in WWII before US and British forces occupied it after D-Day, with French Resistance fighter Armand Lapierre credited with disabling nearby communications lines.
- The Dicker family bought the estate in 1988 after the Gosset family had owned it for 133 years, restoring it into a hotel that earned a fifth star in 2014.
History
La Chenevière takes its name from hemp chaff. A seventeenth-century fibre estate at Port-en-Bessin, behind the Normandy invasion beaches, became a manor when the Gosset family built the present house around 1750. They held it for 133 years.
German officers used the manor as a headquarters in the Second World War. After D-Day in 1944, American and British forces occupied it. Local memory credits Resistance fighter Armand Lapierre with cutting nearby communications lines. The park still sits a short drive from Omaha and the Bessin fishing port.
The Dicker family bought the estate in 1988, restored it as a hotel, and earned a fifth star in 2014. The house remains a Gosset-shaped manor that went to war and then to guests, not a purpose-built seaside palace.
The setting
2.5 km from Golf d'Omaha Beach. 12.9 km from Musée Mémorial d'Omaha Beach.
Restaurants and bars
- Le Botaniste — Restaurant · Fine dining · Chef Didier Robin (Head Chef)
- Zanzibar — Restaurant
- Le Petit Jardin — Restaurant · Bistro
Experiences
- Zanzibar speakeasy bar — Speakeasy bar beneath the dining room, used for dancing into the early morning.
- Bistro Le Petit Jardin — Bistro in a glass house that was the chateau's old conservatory, beside the outdoor heated pool, using produce from the permaculture garden.
Amenities
- Gastronomic restaurant Le Botaniste
- Bucolic bistro Le Petit Jardin
- Heated outdoor swimming pool
- Tennis court and helipad
- 12-hectare romantic park and walled gardens
- Wellness treatments and massages
- Fitness center
- Fine dining
- Pet-friendly
Open Château La Chenevière in the atlas for live weekend rates, photos, and the full folio.