Chateau d'Augerville is situated about 90k south of Paris down some of the smallest, windiest roads you'll come across for a long time. It takes about 75 mins to get here from the centre of Paris.The Chateau itself is a fine 4* hotel with about 50 rooms/suites. We played there on a Saturday and the hotel was buzzing with lots of guests staying for the weekend. Unusually many of the cars were Dutch and we didn't see another English car there.
Having driven down early from Paris we managed to blag a table in the hotel dining room for a buffet breakfast which kick-started the day nicely.
Teeing off on the first you have no sense of what a delight lies ahead of you. The hotel's 18-hole golf course has been classified amongst the 10 most beautiful in France and it definitely lives up to this.
The 1st is a short Par 4 doglegging around some trees to the green. Nice and easy start as long as you keep your drive fairly straight.
From the 2nd hole onwards the course is a succession of beautiful holes. The 2nd is a Par 5 that doglegs right up a hill to a huge green. The green has multiple levels and you could easily find yourself 100 feet from the hole if you find the wrong level. And if you're on the upper level putting down the slope then you're in big trouble.
Most of the holes are tree-lined and there's a real sense of quiet isolation as you plot your way around the course. Each time you think it can't get better it does just that.
The 9th hole finishes right in front of the chateau with the moat running in front of the green. The 18th hole finishes parallel to the 9th but to the side of the chateau. If there was one design change I'd make it would be to find a way to swap the 18th and 9th. The 18th hole deserves to have the grand view of the chateau.
The course has some great Par 3s. My favourite hole was the Par 3 15th. The tee box is set high up on a rocky outcrop looking down over a pond towards the green 180 yards away. It helped that I nailed a 5-iron to 5 feet and sank the putt for a birdie. My 2nd birdie of the day at a crucial point in our match.
The four of us rated this the best of the three courses we played on the trip (the other two were Chateu de la Chouette and Apremont). There wasn't a bad hole on the course and the greens and fairways were in excellent condition.
For me this is a must-play course if you are in the area. In fact I would recommend anybody to come to this area and play three gems - Fontainebleau, Chateau d'Augerville and Belesbat. These are all within 20 miles of each other. Play these three and you would think you were in golf heaven.
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