Château Louise de La Vallière

Staff in period costume serve a candlelit, four-course dinner by 17th-century protocol, which sets the tone for this Loire château hotel before you've even seen your room. Suites named after figures from Louis XIV's court come with velvet, gilded mirrors, Carrara marble clawfoot tubs, and enough heavy drapery to suggest you've moved in permanently. The grounds run to rose gardens, orchards, and trees old enough to have been saplings under the Sun King himself.