Troyes: Hôtel Le Champ des Oiseaux

Troyes, an hour and a half southeast of Paris in the southern Champagne region, looks like an illustration from The Three Musketeers, its narrow cobbled streets lined with half-timbered houses in ochre, pink and yellow. Several of the prettiest 15th- and 16th-century houses, grouped around a flowery courtyard, make up Le Champ des Oiseaux, a charming four-star hotel with twelve spacious, luxuriously decorated rooms and suites. La Chambre Bleue has an immense stone fireplace; La Suite Médiévale and other top-floor rooms have steeply-pitched beamed ceilings, and my favorite room, La Dame du Lac (the Lady of the Lake), overlooks the walled garden of the former bishop’s mansion, now the Museum of Modern Art. It’s a perfect base for exploring the Old Town’s many museums and churches aglow with medieval and Renaissance stained glass.

20 rue Linard Gonthier, 03.25.80.58.50. Doubles from €150. website

Originally published in the March 2008 issue of France Today; updated in December 2010