Gîte with covered pool and private sauna near Chartres

Wellness through the seasons

At Maison Raphaël as at Villa Marceau, wellness follows the calendar: cool water in the warmer months, gentle heat as autumn settles in.

Summer days by the pool

From May to the end of September, summer is lived by the water. You slip in during the morning and drift back in the afternoon, any time between 10 am and 8 pm, as the mood takes you.

The water isn’t heated: the first dip takes your breath away, then wakes you right up. A few lengths of the 15 × 4 m pool, a few minutes in the whirlpool built into the pool, and the afternoon stretches out on a sun lounger, a book open, your skin still cool.

As the evenings draw in, the sauna

The sauna, for its part, knows no season. Yet it’s in autumn and winter that we love it most, back from a walk across the plain, cheeks stung by the cold.

The heat slowly eases into your shoulders. A cool shower, then a cup of tea in the lounge corner, under the eaves. Outside, night falls over the meadows, and nothing is urgent any more.

A massage, just for you

What if, for once, the gift were for you? Our beauty therapist comes to you at the gîte for a back or full-body massage with essential oils.

Afterwards, the evening drifts gently towards sleep. Your bedroom is only a few steps away.

A pool-and-sauna weekend: how does it go?

You arrive on Friday from 5 pm, the key is waiting in its box. On Saturday morning the pool is yours from 10 am: a few lengths, then the whirlpool while the coffee cools on the terrace. In the afternoon, a walk out to the horses, and the sauna when you get back, up under the eaves.

On Sunday, you linger. Check-out before 11 am, cleaning is included, there is nothing to tidy away.

From October to April the pool rests and the sauna takes centre stage: the season of blankets, tea in the lounge corner and evenings without a timetable.