Les Prés d’Eugénie
It began in 1961, when Christine Guérard’s father acquired the small thermal estate of Eugénie-les-Bains, in the Landes. Christine soon gave it the character of a country retreat, joining Relais & Châteaux in 1966.
Her meeting with the young chef Michel Guérard in 1972 changed the course of the house. He settled in Eugénie in 1974 and created his Grande Cuisine Minceur®, which would soon bring him international renown. A third Michelin star followed in 1977. Alongside him, Christine shaped an art of hospitality entirely her own, bringing together historic houses, gardens, collected objects and an ease of manner that would become one of the hallmarks of Les Prés d’Eugénie.
Today, their daughters Éléonore and Adeline Guérard lead the house and carry the family story forward. It is an inheritance they keep alive with freedom and ease. In Eugénie’s kitchens, Hugo Souchet works in the creative wake of the founder while developing a repertoire distinctly his own. His cooking is rooted in the Landes and the Pyrenees, in the Atlantic, the seasons and the producers nearby. Condiments, citrus and scents from farther afield gently stir this familiar landscape. Somehow, they belong here, in a lush and singular estate that seems to sit slightly outside time.
A Palace de France since 2017, Les Prés d’Eugénie preserves a distinctly French idea of hospitality: refined without formality, attentive without display.
Les Prés d’Eugénie became a Comité Colbert member in 1986.
Its signature
At the heart of Eugénie’s gardens, the Thermal Farm draws its spirit from the hot springs, the living landscape and the seasons. Water, plants and skilled hands shape a deeply natural approach to care, precise and free of artifice.
The address
Les Prés d’Eugénie sits in the village of Eugénie-les-Bains, where the Landes meet Béarn. The village was named after Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III, who became the patron of its thermal springs.
