A Whole Pavilion in a Champagne Garden
You pull up on the route de Rethel and, if you have found it, there is a 1920s Champagne house behind the trees: cream render, a red-brick and half-timbered gable, a conical turret and a conservatory on the side. Behind it a lawn runs down past a pool set flush into a grey terrace. The bit you are staying in is the pavilion in the garden, and all of it is yours.
Seventy square metres over two floors with its own front door: a living and dining room with a staircase up to the bedroom, a kitchenette, a bathroom with a big walk-in shower, and French doors onto a terrace and a stone-walled courtyard. It is not a hotel room and it is not a hotel, whatever the reservation listing says. It is a chambre d'hôtes, one unit, run since 2008 by Nathalie Hans, who lives in the house.
What guests write about is her. She serves breakfast personally and fits it around your day, including early. She turned the heating on for a couple arriving late. She cooked one guest's food in her own oven because the kitchenette has none. That is not a service standard, it is a person, and it is the reason this place scores the way it does.
The Pool, the Billiards Room and the Garden
The garden runs to around three and a half thousand square metres, and the pool in it is heated and open seasonally, with loungers, umbrellas and towels provided. One guest arrived in the rain with children and was told to go swimming anyway. There is a children's play area, an outdoor bar area, and a terrace that belongs to the pavilion.
Indoors, in the main house, there is a billiards room that guests keep mentioning because nobody expects it. Between that, the pool and a garden this size, the property is more of a destination than a stopover, though plenty of people use it as one on the drive between Paris, Belgium and the east.
Your kitchenette is fitted for making your own breakfast and a simple supper, with a dining table beside it and a high chair if you need one. The one thing it does not have is an oven, which is worth planning your shopping around. Isles-sur-Suippe is a village, so do that shopping in Reims or Bazancourt on the way in.
Three Things to Sort Before You Set Off
First, finding it. This is the one complaint that recurs. There is no sign outside, the house sits back from the road, and a Norwegian guest states plainly that the address on the reservation listing is not correct. Programme the coordinates rather than the street address, save Nathalie's number, and ring her when you are close. She will talk you in.
Second, timing. Check-in runs from five in the afternoon until half past seven in the evening, which is a narrow window and a strict one, because this is somebody's home rather than a staffed desk. If your ferry or your flight lands outside it, arrange it in advance; guests report her being flexible when asked.
Third, the car. Reims is seventeen to nineteen kilometres away, roughly twenty minutes on the A34, and the Champagne houses and the cathedral are all at that end. Bazancourt station is 2.4 kilometres off but leaves you stranded without onward transport. And ignore any listing that names Reims-Champagne Air Base as the nearest airport: it is a closed military airfield with no passenger flights. Paris Charles de Gaulle is the real answer.
Why Book Le Pavillon de Nathalie?
This is one guest suite in the garden of a private house in a Champagne village, and it is run by the woman who lives in the house. That shapes everything good about it and everything you need to plan around.
The whole pavilion is yours
Seventy square metres over two floors with a private entrance, a living and dining room, a kitchenette, a bedroom and a bathroom, plus a terrace onto the garden. Guests describe it as having a whole outbuilding to themselves, which is exactly what it is.
A heated pool and a billiards table
The garden runs to about 3,500 square metres with a heated seasonal pool, loungers, umbrellas and pool towels, a children's play area and an outdoor bar. There is a billiards room indoors. Guests routinely arrive not expecting any of it.
Nathalie brings breakfast over
Fresh pastries, fruit, juice and homemade jams, served personally and timed around you. One group needed an early breakfast and got one. Another guest with no oven in the kitchenette had their food cooked in the owner's. That is the whole proposition.
You will need a car, and a map
Reims is seventeen to nineteen kilometres away, about twenty minutes on the A34, and there is nothing within walking distance. The property is also genuinely hard to find, with no sign outside and a listing address one guest says is wrong. Save the phone number before you set off.
Check Availability at Le Pavillon de Nathalie
Interesting Points About Le Pavillon de Nathalie
- This is a chambre d'hôtes, not a hotel: one self-contained guest suite in the owner's garden, however the reservation listing classifies it
- The suite is 70 square metres over two floors with its own entrance, which is more space than most hotel suites in Reims
- The house is a 1920s Champagne-style villa with a turret and half-timbered gable, fully renovated
- The reservation listing names Reims-Champagne Air Base as the nearest airport. It is a closed military base with no passenger flights
- The kitchenette has a hob, fridge, microwave and coffee machine but no oven, which one guest solved by having Nathalie cook their food in hers
- There is a billiards room and a heated seasonal pool in a garden of about 3,500 square metres
- Bazancourt station is 2.4 km away, which makes arriving by train possible but not practical without onward transport
Rooms & Accommodation at Le Pavillon de Nathalie
The Pavilion
70 m² over two floors, sleeps up to four
The only unit, and it is the whole outbuilding: seventy square metres over two floors with its own front door, a living and dining room downstairs, a bedroom up the stairs, a kitchenette and a bathroom with a proper walk-in shower. A double bed, a sofa bed and a fold-up bed mean it works for a couple, comfortably, or four at a push. Best for couples touring Champagne and for families who want a pool and a garden rather than a corridor. Note that it is a duplex with an internal staircase, so it is not a step-free unit.
Check PricesIs Le Pavillon de Nathalie Right for You?
Best Suited For
- Couples touring Champagne by car who want privacy and a garden rather than a hotel corridor
- Families, with a heated pool, a play area and a high chair available
- Anyone breaking a long drive between Paris, Belgium and eastern France
- Guests who value a real host: the welcome is the highest-rated thing here
Worth Considering Alternatives If
- Travellers without a car, since nothing is within walking distance and the station leaves you stranded
- Anyone arriving outside the 17:00 to 19:30 check-in window who has not arranged it in advance
- Guests who need step-free access, because the suite is a duplex with an internal staircase
- Cooks, because the kitchenette has a hob but no oven
Amenities and Facilities
In the Pavilion
- Private entrance and 70 m² over two floors
- Private bathroom with a walk-in shower, towels and a hairdryer
- Kitchenette with fridge, hob, microwave, coffee machine and kettle
- Kitchenware and cleaning products provided
- Dining area and seating area
- TV with cable and satellite channels
- Heating and a fan
- Wardrobe and a drying rack
- High chair available
- Terrace with outdoor furniture
- Free Wi-Fi
- Not available: Oven
The Garden
- Heated outdoor pool, open seasonally
- Sun loungers, umbrellas and pool towels
- Garden of about 3,500 m²
- Terrace
- Billiards room in the main house
- Children's play area
- Outdoor bar area
Food and Drink
- Breakfast
- Breakfast timings flexible, including early starts
- Not available: Restaurant
- Not available: Bar service
Practicalities
- Free private parking on site, reservation needed
- Large vehicles have been accommodated, including a boat trailer
- Not available: Reception
- Not available: Signage
- Bazancourt station 2.4 km away
- Not available: Step-free access
Policies
- Non-smoking
- Payment on site
- Damage policy
- Cancellation and prepayment terms depend on the rate chosen
- Not available: Function or event facilities
Location and Getting There
Isles-sur-Suippe is a village of a few hundred people in the Marne, on the flat farmland north-east of Reims where the Champagne vineyards give way to beet and wheat. It is quiet in the way only rural France is quiet, and that is the product: guests write about the peace as often as they write about the pool.
Everything you came for is a drive away. Reims is seventeen to nineteen kilometres, about twenty minutes on the A34, and that is where the cathedral, the Palais du Tau, the Basilique Saint-Remi and the great Champagne houses with their chalk cellars all are. The Montagne de Reims vineyards start south of the city. Épernay, the other Champagne capital, is about fifty minutes.
Bazancourt station is 2.4 kilometres away with services towards Reims and Rethel, but without onward transport at this end it is not much use. Paris Charles de Gaulle is roughly an hour and a half by road, and Paris itself under two hours. Ignore any listing naming Reims-Champagne Air Base as the closest airport: it is a closed military base and has no passenger flights.
- Bazancourt station: About 2.4 km, a 5-minute drive
- Warmeriville shops: About 4 km, a 6-minute drive
- Reims city centre and the cathedral: About 17 to 19 km, a 20-minute drive
- Basilique Saint-Remi, Reims: About 20 km, a 22-minute drive
- The Champagne houses and chalk cellars, Reims: About 20 km, a 20 to 25 minute drive
- Montagne de Reims vineyards: About 30 km south, a 35-minute drive
- Épernay and the Avenue de Champagne: About 45 km, roughly 50 minutes by car
- Rethel: About 30 km north, a 30-minute drive
- Paris Charles de Gaulle airport: About 145 km, roughly 1 hour 30 minutes
- Paris: About 170 km, under 2 hours by car
Getting to Key Locations
Photo: DXR, CC BY-SA 3.0
Reims Cathedral
20 min drive
A 20-minute drive south-west, the cathedral where thirty-three French kings were crowned still dominates Reims, its east end bristling with flying buttresses beside the Palais du Tau. The stained glass includes windows by Chagall, and the smiling angel on the west front is the most famous piece of Gothic sculpture in France.
View on Map
The Champagne cellars
25 min drive
A 25-minute drive brings you to the chalk crayères under Reims, Roman quarries turned into cellars where millions of bottles rest at a constant temperature. Pommery, Taittinger and Veuve Clicquot all run tours, and walking down into the chalk is a genuinely strange experience even before anyone opens anything.
View on Map
Photo: Pline, CC BY-SA 3.0
Montagne de Reims vineyards
35 min drive
A 35-minute drive south takes you into the vineyards proper, where the Montagne de Reims rises between Reims and Épernay and the grand cru villages sit in folds of vine. The D26 route touristique threads through them, and in September the whole hillside is out picking.
View on MapHow to Get to Le Pavillon de Nathalie
- Finding it, which is the hard part: There is no sign outside and the house sits back from the road, and one guest states the address on the reservation listing is not correct. Put the coordinates 49.356755, 4.201624 into your satnav rather than the street address, and save Nathalie's number before you set off so you can ring when you are close. She will talk you in.
- From Reims: Take the A34 north-east towards Rethel and come off for Bazancourt and Isles-sur-Suippe. It is seventeen to nineteen kilometres and about twenty minutes. Do your shopping in Reims on the way through if you plan to use the kitchenette, because the village has very little.
- From Paris or Charles de Gaulle: Roughly an hour and a half from the airport and under two hours from central Paris, on the A4 to Reims and then the A34. There is free parking on site and space for something large: one guest arrived with a boat trailer.
- By train: Bazancourt is the nearest station, 2.4 kilometres away, with services from Reims. It is walkable in theory and a poor idea in practice with luggage, and there is no transport at this end, so arrange a taxi or accept that a car is really the way to do this trip.
Reims and the Champagne Country
You are staying in the flat farmland north-east of Reims, which is not the picture-book Champagne of the postcards; that starts south of the city, on the Montagne de Reims and down the Marne valley to Épernay. What you have instead is quiet, a garden and a twenty-minute drive to one of the great cathedral cities of France.
Reims itself deserves a full day: the cathedral where French kings were crowned, the Palais du Tau beside it, the Basilique Saint-Remi, and the chalk cellars under the city where Pommery, Taittinger and Veuve Clicquot age their bottles. Épernay and its Avenue de Champagne are about fifty minutes on.
Come between May and September for the pool and the warm weather, or in September for the vendange, when the whole region is out picking and the villages smell of fermenting grapes. December brings the Reims Christmas market. January to March is the quiet season, and the pool will not be open.
Watch: Things to Do in Reims
A guide to the city twenty minutes down the A34, covering the cathedral, the Champagne houses and the chalk cellars beneath them.
Is Le Pavillon de Nathalie worth it?
Yes, if you have a car and want a garden rather than a corridor. You get a whole seventy-square-metre pavilion to yourself, a heated pool, a billiards room and a host who serves breakfast around your morning and will talk you in by phone when you cannot find the place. And you will need to be talked in: there is no sign, the listed address is wrong and check-in is a narrow evening window. Sort those two things and it is one of the best-run small stays in Champagne.
What Guests Say About Le Pavillon de Nathalie
Scores and review counts are aggregated from verified guest bookings on major travel platforms.
Superb
These reviews are about a person as much as a property. Nathalie is named in almost every one: for the welcome, for the local tips, for serving breakfast around people's timings, for turning the heating on before a late arrival and for cooking one guest's dinner because the kitchenette has no oven. After that come the cleanliness, which is rated at the very top, and the privacy of having a whole outbuilding. The criticisms are few and practical: it is hard to find, there is no oven, and Reims is a fifteen-minute drive.
Called it exceptional: roomy, very well equipped and a genuinely restful stay, with Nathalie on top form and a good breakfast. The only thing he would change is brighter lamps beside the bed.
Dave
Loved everything. Arriving late, he and his partner found the heating already on, and he praised the privacy and a big, fresh French breakfast. He called it an ideal base for Reims and Champagne.
Rated the gardens and the pool and a really hospitable host who let the children swim even in the rain. He thought it a great stopover, though a touch pricey for the standard.
Enjoyed a wonderfully quiet, traditionally French setting with a whole outbuilding to themselves. They would have liked an oven, and Nathalie solved it by cooking their food in hers.
Found it exceptional and spacious, would gladly have stayed longer and loved the pool. Her one caution was that it is tricky to find, with no signage and an address on the reservation listing that is not right.
Described a warm, personal stay with brilliant regional tips from an attentive host. Everything was perfect apart from the roughly fifteen-minute drive into Reims.
Called it superb, self-contained and very clean, with easy parking, a host who was always reachable, a pool and billiards. Nathalie served breakfast herself around their schedule, and they would happily have stayed longer.
A pleasant short stay with smooth, friendly communication, a flexible arrival time and the option of an early breakfast. She had nothing to fault.
Good to Know Before You Book
It is genuinely hard to find
There is no signage outside and one guest states the address on the reservation listing is not correct. Programme the coordinates rather than the street name, save the owner's phone number before you set off, and call when you are close. This is the single most useful piece of preparation for this stay.
Check-in is 17:00 to 19:30
That is a narrow window and it exists because this is somebody's home rather than a staffed reception. Arriving outside it needs arranging in advance, and guests report the owner being genuinely flexible when asked. Check-out is by 11:00.
A hob but no oven, and carry cash
The kitchenette has a fridge, a hob, a microwave, a coffee machine and a kettle, but no oven, so plan your shopping accordingly and do it in Reims or Bazancourt rather than in the village. Anything bought on site is cash only, so bring some.
It is a chambre d'hôtes, not a hotel
One self-contained guest suite in the owner's garden, registered as a chambre d'hôtes since 2008 and listed as such by the Marne tourism board, whatever the reservation listing's hotel classification says. That also means no reception, no restaurant and a duplex with an internal staircase rather than step-free access.
Cancellation terms depend on the rate
Cancellation and prepayment conditions vary by the option you pick, and the exact terms show before you confirm. Separately, a damage policy of up to €250 may be applied after check-out.
Call Le Pavillon de Nathalie
Ring ahead. You will want the number to arrange your arrival time, to confirm breakfast, and above all to be talked in on the day, because the property is unmarked and the listing address is unreliable.
+33 3 26 88 36 06Photos of Le Pavillon de Nathalie
Frequently Asked Questions
A guest house, or in French a chambre d'hôtes. It is one self-contained 70 m² guest suite in the garden of the owner's house, registered as such since 2008 and listed by the Marne tourism board as an unclassified chambre d'hôtes. The reservation listing classifies it as a hotel with three stars; that is a platform label rather than a French government classification.
It is at 25 route de Rethel in Isles-sur-Suippe, about seventeen to nineteen kilometres north-east of Reims. Finding it is the hard part: there is no signage, and one guest reports the address shown on the reservation listing is not correct. Use the coordinates 49.356755, 4.201624 in your satnav, save the owner's number before you travel and ring when you are close.
Check-in runs from 17:00 to 19:30 and check-out is by 11:00. It is a narrow window because the owner lives on site and there is no reception. If you cannot make it, arrange an alternative in advance; guests consistently report her being flexible when asked.
Yes, there is free private parking on site, and the property asks that you reserve it. Guests describe parking as easy, and one arrived with a boat trailer without difficulty, so larger vehicles are workable.
Breakfast is charged separately rather than included in the room total, and it is served personally by the owner: fresh pastries, fruit, juice and homemade preserves, continental or à la carte. She adapts the timing to your day and will do an early breakfast if you ask. Guests rate it at the top of the scale.
The outdoor pool is heated and open seasonally, with loungers, umbrellas and pool towels provided. It will not be open in the depths of winter, so if the pool is the reason you are booking, aim for May to September and confirm when you reserve.
The property does not advertise itself as pet-friendly, and the listing does not confirm it either way. Since this is somebody's home rather than a hotel, ask directly when you book rather than assuming.
With difficulty. Bazancourt station is 2.4 kilometres away with services from Reims, but there is no onward transport at this end and nothing within walking distance, so you would need a taxi. Realistically this is a stay for people with a car, and the whole point of the location is that Reims and the Champagne route are a short drive rather than a walk.
Paris Charles de Gaulle, roughly an hour and a half by road. Ignore any listing that names Reims-Champagne Air Base as the closest airport: it is a closed military base with no passenger flights, and that entry is an error carried across several sites.
Up to a point. The kitchenette has a fridge, a hob, a microwave, a coffee machine, a kettle and kitchenware, but no oven. One guest who wanted to roast something had it cooked in the owner's oven instead. Buy your food in Reims or Bazancourt on the way in, because the village itself has very little.
Other Great Stays in France
Au Domaine de Py
A quiet rural guest house in the Vosges, for another stay where the host is the point.
Auberge du Saut des Cuves
A riverside inn in the Vosges mountains, further east and good for a driving tour.
Hotel Aboukir, Paris
A very cheap, very central Paris walk-up, if you are ending the trip in the capital.
Ready for the Garden Pavilion?
Seventy square metres to yourself, a heated pool, a billiards room and a breakfast brought over by the owner, twenty minutes from Reims. Programme the coordinates and check the dates.
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