Le Couvent des Minimes: Inside the Home of L'Occitane

Mane, Haute-Provence • A 17th-century convent and the home of L'Occitane

Le Couvent des Minimes sits on a hillside beside the village of Mane, in the quieter, wilder part of Provence the locals call the haut-pays. It is a 5-star Relais & Châteaux hotel and the flagship of the brand's spas worldwide. This year it has one more reason to celebrate: L'Occitane en Provence turns fifty.

It started with a sprig of rosemary

It all started in 1976, when a young Olivier Baussan distilled rosemary in Haute-Provence with little more than a small still and a good knowledge of the plants around him. That simple gesture grew into L'Occitane en Provence. Half a century later the brand is known all over the world, yet its roots have never moved far from these hills. The factory is in Manosque, a short drive from the hotel.

The anniversary was celebrated worldwide on 1 April 2026, opening a full year of events across the brand's boutiques, spas and partner hotels. Le Couvent des Minimes is right at the heart of it, and the link to the founder is everywhere once you start looking. The bar in the cloister is called L'Alambic, after the still that started it all, and an old alembic greets you at the entrance to the spa's saunas.

Four centuries of quiet

The convent itself is much older than the brand. It was founded in 1613 by the Marquis Melchior de Forbin for the Minimes, an order of monks who studied mathematics, astronomy and botany. One of them, Louis Feuillée, was the son of a local peasant who joined as a porter and ended up as the private botanist of Louis XIV. From his voyages to Latin America he brought back nasturtium and fuchsia seeds in his pockets and planted them here.

After the French Revolution the convent stood empty for decades. It later became a hospice run by Franciscan sisters, who stayed until 1999 and farmed the terraces with vines, fruit trees and medicinal plants. In 2008 it opened as a hotel, and after a three-year transformation it reopened in 2023 in its current form. The chapel, bell tower, cloister and stations of the cross were carefully kept. During the works, archaeologists even uncovered two 17th-century frescoes hidden under layers of paint. One of them, a smiling cherub, now stays exactly where it was found, protected under glass.

Arriving through the chapel

Architect Anthony Micoud of the Swiss studio de Planta & Architectes restored the route the monks once walked, which means you now enter the hotel through the old chapel. It is quite a first impression: ten-metre ceilings, a Burgundy stone floor and eighteen restored stained-glass windows, most of them from the 17th century. Where the altar once stood there is now a large, low sofa, with a monumental chandelier by Spanish designer Antoni Arola for Santa Cole above it. Its three rings of porcelain lamps give off a soft, candle-like glow.

A sweeping staircase leads down to the cloister, which has become the hotel's living room. Under the old timber roof you will find deep sofas, a round pond in the middle and the L'Alambic bar, clad in hand-made zellige by Franco-Moroccan designer Salima Filali. Borders of aromatic and medicinal herbs still grow at the four corners, a quiet tribute to the monks who studied them.

Rooms & suites

There are 49 rooms and suites, 34 of them in the historic part of the convent, including a duplex in the bell tower. Small rooms no longer exist here. Every room opens onto the view, towards the Luberon mountains or the hilltop village of Mane.

The interiors feel like a modern version of the convent's original simplicity. Think oak, linen, wicker, raffia and terracotta, in a palette that moves from white and beige to brown and olive green. Local makers play a big role. Jérémie du Chaffaut of Edition Midi created the oak and straw chairs, woven by hand by the last chair-maker in the Camargue, as well as headboards shaped like folding screens. The bathrooms feel like rooms in their own right, with pink-beige terracotta floors laid in a herringbone pattern, stone basins and freestanding bathtubs.

For even more calm, there are two newer wings. La Serre sits on the roof of the spa, with eight rooms and suites that let you walk to your treatment in a bathrobe, including the largest suite in the hotel. La Restanque, with seven rooms, is tucked away among the cedars.

Gardens on thirteen terraces

True to the convent's botanical past, plants come first here. Landscape architects Philippe Pourrière and Etienne Voiriot designed the gardens across thirteen terraces. The path to the chapel is lined with aglandau olive trees, a hardy local variety. There is a garden of sixty olive trees, a terrace of Aleppo pines and a two-hundred-year-old plane tree that is the pride of the estate. On the roof, the Jardin des Arômes supplies the kitchen with basil, savory, tarragon and hyssop, while the spa roofs are planted with lavender and immortelle, the brand's signature flower.

The spa: L'Occitane at its source

The spa is the reason many guests come, and it lives up to it. At 2,500 m², it follows the curves of the land with pavilions, terraces and patios that keep you connected to the landscape outside. It was the first spa in the world to be certified by Ecocert as a Sustainable Wellbeing Center.

The dry area has ten treatment rooms, two of them for couples, a yoga room, a gym and a herbal tea room inspired by old herbalist shops. In the wet area you will find an indoor and an outdoor pool facing each other, two saunas with views over the countryside, a steam room built around a Provençal fountain and a sensory water circuit with a salt grotto and a snow shower.

At the table

The kitchen is led by Louis Gachet, Meilleur Ouvrier de France, who grew up in Burgundy in a family of restaurateurs. His wife Pauline runs the dining room, and together they bring a warm, very personal kind of hospitality. At Le Feuillée, named after the botanist monk, Gachet holds a Michelin star for a cuisine that moves between his native Burgundy and the herbs and produce of Provence.

For something more relaxed there is Pamparigouste, the bistro. Its name comes from Occitan and refers to an imaginary land so far away that nobody has ever found it. It is open all day, looks out over lavender fields and has the traditional radassier sofas of oak and woven straw. Wine lovers should ask to see Dame Jeanne, the glass-walled cellar with around 850 wines and a clear love for Provence.

Why it stays with us

What makes Le Couvent des Minimes special is how naturally everything fits together. A convent built by monks who studied plants, a brand born from a single distillation of rosemary, and a spa that brings both stories back to the same hillside. It never feels like a branded hotel. It feels like the place where L'Occitane has always belonged. In the year the brand turns fifty, there is no better moment to see where it all began.

A short summary

• Where: Mane, near Forcalquier in Haute-Provence, about an hour from Marseille airport and from Aix-en-Provence TGV station.
• The hotel: A 5-star Relais & Châteaux hotel with 49 rooms and suites, open all year round.
• The spa: 2,500 m² of L'Occitane wellness, the brand's flagship spa and the first Ecocert certified Sustainable Wellbeing Center in the world.
• Dining: Le Feuillée for a Michelin-starred dinner, Pamparigouste for a relaxed bistro meal at any time of day. Check opening days before you book, as Le Feuillée is not open every evening.
• Nearby: The hilltop village of Mane, the Monday market in Forcalquier and the L'Occitane factory in Manosque, where you can see how plants become cosmetics.
• Best for: Slow travellers who want a spa weekend with history, beautiful gardens and very good food.

Discover more at couventdesminimes-hotelspa.com and follow @hotelcouventdesminimes.

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