Nainville-les-Roches: Le Clos des Fontaines

At Nainville-les-Roches, in the Essonne département, the estate that once belonged to tennis champion and pop singer Yannick Noah is now a B&B well worth a detour. It’s set in more than an acre of gardens with an immense copper beech tree, a rare weeping cedar and, of course, a tennis court, but also a pool, sauna, boules court and—how can you resist?—a trampoline at your disposal. Geneviève Soton, a former credit manager for a large company, decided to change her life when she discovered this country home adjacent to an exquisite village church and returned to the pleasures of nature. Eighteenth-century farm buildings house five guest rooms named for spices, each with its own entrance and pleasantly decorated. Just 30 miles from Paris, guests can enjoy a wine-tasting session, paint a watercolor, bike along a towpath by the Seine or visit Milly-la-Forêt or the royal city of Etampes. Not to mention the “flying museum” of Cerny-La Ferté-Alais, whose collection of planes is one of the most astonishing in Europe.

3 place de l’Eglise, Nainville-les-Roches, 01.64.98.40.56. Doubles from €90. website

Originally published in the November 2009 issue of France Today; updated in March 2012