This past summer, hotel chain Mama Shelter launched its latest hotel, Mama Shelter Dijon, in the Burgundy region of France.

© Francis Amiand

Within this unique hotel guests will find a modern, 202-seat restaurant to enjoy local cuisine, including charcoal-grilled meats, signature cocktails and classic Mama dishes, as well as Toile de Jouy-inspired décor, a décor style giving that cozy, French country vibe. Mama Shelter Dijon’s restaurant opens onto two outdoor areas: the veranda terrace and the planted patio.

One of the highlights of this new 120-room property is CineMama, the hotel’s private, 28-seat cinema where guests can hold screenings or video conferences. There are also two karaoke bars, four meeting rooms and a petanque court on the property. Pétanque is a sport that falls into the category of boules sports. In these sports, players or teams play their boules/balls toward a target ball. The objective is to score points by having boules closer to the target than the opponent after all have been thrown.

© Francis Amiand

Another unique amenity of the hotel, available exclusively at the Mama Shelter Dijon property, is the hotel’s own mustard, created in collaboration with Edmond Fallot, a family-run, independent company created in 1840. The Edmond Fallot company only uses seeds grown in the region and is traditionally stone ground to preserve all the taste qualities. Guests can purchase the mustard at the hotel for dishes at home, along with a mix of flavors from Mama Shelter and Burgundy shops.

The city of Dijon is surrounded by rolling countryside where the most famous vineyards in the world, including Gevrey-Chambertin, Nuits-Saint-Georges and Côte de Beaune, are adjacent to the mustard fields and blackcurrant orchards, from which the famous Kir is made.

© Francis Amiand

Located about 1.5 hours by the high-speed TGV train from Paris, and two hours from Lyon, Dijon has lots of attractions to offer visitors, including remarkable architecture, with the highlight being Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy, the oldest part of which dates from the 14^th century. Having been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, Dijon is an International City of Gastronomy and Wine due to its unique culinary traditions and the superb grapes of the  Burgundy vineyards.

Mama Shelter, located next to Saint-Bénigne Cathedral and Jardin Darcy, was constructed within the former health insurance offices for the city, a Brutalist-style building from the 1960s, and restored into a hotel by architect Benjamin El Doghaïli, Mama Shelter Hotels’ head of design.

© Francis Amiand

The hotel’s black and white carpeting was designed by Lola Mercier and represents Burgundian vineyards, while the patterns and colors on the headboards represent glazed roofs found in buildings around Dijon.

El Doghaïli transformed each pillar in the lobby and restaurant into works of art, decorated with frescoes by Beniloys and golden ceramics by Arnold du Bazar d’Alger, a graphic artist, all of which complement the cut-out silkscreens by Atelier Bingo. In the restaurant, attention is drawn to the floor by two symmetrical carpets by Paris-based designer Laureline Galliot, with a pattern referencing archaeological digs that took place during the construction.

© Francis Amiand

The distinguished 1787 Musée des Beaux-Arts, housed in the vast Palace of the Dukes, is just a 10-minute walk from the hotel and holds a rich collection of paintings, sculptures, crafts and antiquities. The city has, fortunately, retained varied architectural styles from many of the main periods of the past millennium, including Capetian, Gothic and Renaissance, and holds an International and Gastronomic Fair every autumn with more than 500 exhibitors and 200,000 visitors annually.