When Louise Pineau de Viennay helped the peasants of Le Grand-Lucé rebuild their homes after a fire destroyed the village in 1781, little did she imagine that her kindness would be repaid just eight years later. Not only did the villagers hide the aristocrat when the French Revolution erupted, they protected her family home, the Château du Grand-Lucé – one of the few mansions in France to survive the rampage intact.

Today, the mid 18th-century masterpiece that was once a favourite haunt of Rousseau, Voltaire and Mozart is the latest posh sleepover in the Loire Valley.