Litchi Tree Maison d’hôte de Charme
The Litchi Tree maison d’hôte de charme is an elegant yet rustic respite from the chaos and disorder that is Madagascar. Located in Joffreville it’s about 4K from the Amber Mountain National Park office.
Set in a quiet garden the large rooms, with high wooden ceilings and dark wood furniture and floors are everything you would expect from a French owner. There is, however, no phone, Wifi, TV, hair dryer or safe and the electricity only runs from 5:30PM to 10PM. Despite the general quiet calm, it can be a bit noisy on nights when locals are partying in town.
The owner, Hervé, is attentive to your needs and remembers requests without being reminded. He arranged a car for us back to Antsiranana (Diego) and a picnic lunch for our day at Amber Mountain National Park.
Dining
Drinks in the lounge before dinner where Hervé has an incredible collection of gins and other spirits. Hendricks bottles of varying sizes line the bar.
The dining room is elegant with white rustic modulated stucco walls and decorated in dark wood with African touches. Both the lounge and dining room are a pleasure to linger in and chat with other guests.
The 3 course set menu, prepared with care, is as simple and elegant as the rooms.
The first evening started with a squash based vegetable soup followed by sautéed zebu over vegies – a generous portion of the most tender cooked zebu we’ve eaten accompanied by crisp green beans and sweet carrots. For dessert vanilla flan.
The second evening started with a fish terrine with grated carrot and, as announced by the charming 7 year old Matilde, poulet en sauce (a sweetish wine sauce) with a side of roasted potatoes. Chocolate cake with a soft center for dessert. All excellent.
Wine is available.
Breakfast
Breakfast includes 3 kinds of bread – rolls, brioche and pain au chocolat – served warm, jam, scrambled eggs and coffee.
You pay top dollar for these fine touches and services. Nearly Western prices, it was the most we paid in Madagascar – 26 Euro per person for the 3 course dinner, 30,000 ariary ($9 USD) per person for a picnic lunch, 48 Euro total for a transfer to Diego.
October 2, 2016
For links to all the posts in this series see the Madagascar page.