My Husband and I stayed in the hotel for a night and the restaurant was exceptionally good. I believe they have a new, young chef who is producing some very good dishes.

I would highly recommend the restauant. It has been the best in our trip round France.

The rooms were well supplied and very comfortable.

This was our second visit to Chateau Lignan, the last time back in 2001.

Obviously the chateau has changed hands and our last stay was during winter, so it was faciniating to see the differences during the summer.

The village Lignan sur L'Orb is fairly large, but very quiet and the chateau is located next to the River Orb in a very peaceful and calming location. There are grounds of 7 hectares of woods and park type gardens which are lovely. There is a feeling of calm and serenity surrounding the chateau and a very easy going feeling, which is rather lovely.

The outdoor swimming pool was very warm and there were plenty of sunbeds and chairs around the pool for anyone who wished to lie there in the peace and quiet. There is ample shade and sunshine, whatever you wanted.

The grounds were very pretty with plenty of birdlife including golden orioles, turtle doves and occasional red kite. The pretty chapel/church next to the chateau is very attractive and rings out the hours, but hardly audiable from the bedrooms, so not intrusive. It is a good indicator as to the time, which "flies" whilst relaxing by the swimming pool.

We stayed three nights and ate breakfast and dinner in the chateau. On a lighter note, if you want your egg done just about right, the eggs need to be left in the egg boiler machine for 7.5 minutes at least - by the time we left, we had just about got it right.... However, there is a wide variety of choice of croissants, pain au chocolat, ham, cheese, bread, yoghurts, bountiful amount of fruit etc. Various teas and coffee.

Our bedroom was very comfortable, clean and modern but classic decor and the bathroom had bath/shower with good supplies of toiletries. The room had a fridge with the usual sort of refreshments and the air-conditioning worked well. However, we were able to open the window and enjoy the birdsong and trees rustling in the breeze.

Our only niggle, which was personal to us because we were there for 3 nights, was that the menu didn't change on the a la carte menu and there weren't any daily "specials" which we remembered from our first stay. However, as it seemed that most clientele only stayed one or two nights, that didn't impact on most people.

I enjoyed the facility of brand new bicycles to cycle around the park, although some of the saddles on some of the bikes needed tightening and the reception staff didn't appear to have a spanner - not their fault, perhaps the Management should provide one....?

All in all we would recommend a stay in this beautiful chateau and experience the outside summer dining and lunch area - it is a decked area located at the back of the chateau under the trees. We had a lovely time and thank you very much.

We stayed May 21 -28th 2011 and had been concerned by earlier reviews. However, apart from mosquitoes at night and a problem with the air-conditioning for the first 2 days, we had a lovely time and rate the hotel and its staff highly.

The Staff : overall they were very friendly and helpful.
The reception / management spoke good English ( and a new manager is a really pleasant English lady ) and were all very friendly and approachable. When there was a problem with the aircon they brought up a large fan to our room to help.
A lot of the Waiting staff spoke good English and were also nice, and we didn't experience the hostility an earlier reviewer found. There was one evening where a waiter who admittedly was a bit off-hand at times, ignored us to the point we had to get our own bread and wine, but this was more than made up for by the hotel's sole waitress who used her initiative and took over our table. She was brilliant throughout the stay and has a great future ahead of her - very capable and motivated. When she learned it was my birthday, she brought out champagne and candles etc, and made a real fuss, and it was genuinely done out of her own good will and kindness rather than it just being hotel policy. ( and she did other nice things during our stay ).
She also good-naturedly humoured my husband trying his ancient school-boy French out on her and his gentle flirting. A thoroughly nice girl and with the other staff , made it such a good holiday.

The Hotel : although we had an unrefurbished room, it was clean and comfortable, and thus we weren't bothered about moving, though we did look at a newly up-dated room and were very impressed. It even had a kettle and tea-making facilities ! Once that refurb has finished ( it was underway but we were not disturbed by it ) then the hotel will be very smart ; I just hope they don't raise the prices. The beds were large and very comfortable.

The gardens were a bit disappointing as much of the grounds had become neglected, but the important parts such as the dining terrace and the terrace at the front of the hotel and by the pool were well maintained and attractive. The pool was lovely and we had it to ourselves most of the stay. It is not heated but was a nice temperature.The poolside shower wasn't working and the lavatory in the next door Orangery was sometimes locked, but perhaps in high summer these will be remedied.

The Food : all credit to the chef and staff, this was excellent, but the menu wasn't cheap. The restaurant is obviously a gourmet destination for locals, and some nights it was booked up. The menu was the same all week and although there was a good choice, we found it a bit repetitive as the food was very rich and a couple of nights we decided to buy our own plainer food and have a picnic just so our tastebuds could recover. Breakfast was a buffet, but again was to a high standard.

There is a large carpark with plenty of room though with conferences it did fill up.

Its worth checking when the aircon works ; we were there in a bit of a heatwave, but the week or so before had been cold and they had changed the aircon to a hot-air function. The engineer was required to turn it back over, hence our problem, above. Being by a river, mosquitoes were a problem ( they are silent and difficult to spot ) and for the first 2 nights we kept the window closed and it got very hot, though the fan was much appreciated. There is a good pharmacy in the little village.

On a general basis, the newish ring road around Bezieres took some getting used to, so get a sat-nav or up-to-date map,and eating out was far more expensive now than when we last visited France. However, we loved the hotel and the region and would go back, though suspect in high summer when it is full it might lose a bit of its charm.

This chateau compares very badly with other chateaux standards - instead of emphasising its history it's gone the 'boutique hotel' route. The bedrooms vere very basic - did not even have shampoo/showergel, reception just told us they haven't got it!
Building/surrounds and restaurant are 5 star, staff and rooms are at best 2 star.
I'm not sure the hotel knows what its imge is and what it ultimately is trying to sell to their customers. For the prices charged we definitely expected a better service all round