Moulin Moulin, Côte d’Opale: the weekend house you won’t want to leave
BOOK NOWA former mill, a lake, six very personal rooms and two genuinely lovely hosts, Moulin Moulin is the kind of place that makes a weekend on the Côte d’Opale feel like a very good idea.
There is something slightly dangerous about arriving at Moulin Moulin for a weekend. Not dangerous in any dramatic sense, unless you count immediately wondering whether you could somehow rearrange your life and move in. Tucked away in Dannes, between the sea and the countryside of the Côte d’Opale, this former mill has been transformed by Jérémy and Nicolas into a place that feels unmistakably like theirs.
That is probably the first thing we noticed. Moulin Moulin doesn’t have the anonymous feeling that can come with beautiful hotels. You know when a place has been designed to look good in photographs but you could remove the people behind it and nothing would really change? This is not that. Here, the owners are part of the atmosphere. They are around, they chat, they notice things, they make breakfast, they recommend where to go. And they are, quite simply, lovely.
Meet ÉLIA, our room for the weekend
We stayed in ÉLIA, one of the rooms overlooking the water. The rooms are named after women from Jérémy and Nicolas’s families, which is a lovely touch and one that fits the house perfectly.
ÉLIA was born in Spoleto, in Umbria, and arrived in France in the late 1950s. Jérémy’s mother is the fourth of her six children, and Élia now lives in Italy, near Venice.
The room has a view over the pond, which is obviously hard to argue with. It is the kind of view that makes you open the curtains in the morning before doing anything else. And there are those little things that make a room feel immediately welcoming: ground coffee and a French press, loose-leaf tea you can make yourself, and vintage cups that make the whole ritual feel a little nicer than it would at home.
It is perfect if you happen to wake up earlier than everyone else, or if you come back to your room mid-afternoon and realise you need a little pick-me-up before heading back out. No need to go downstairs or wait for anything, just make yourself a coffee or tea and sit for a while.
The room itself has a warm, slightly old-fashioned feel without looking like it has been recreated as some sort of countryside fantasy. It feels comfortable and lived-in, which is exactly what you want from a weekend room.
The other rooms are all worth having a look at too. They each have their own atmosphere, and the house is big enough that you can spend a surprising amount of time wandering around deciding where you want to sit next.
The house is half the reason to come
Moulin Moulin is not one of those places where everything happens in your bedroom. The fun is moving through the house and finding another space you like.
There are cosy corners, larger communal rooms, places to sit with a book, places to have a drink and plenty of little details that make the interiors interesting without feeling too precious. The mix of furniture and objects gives the house character, and the different rooms don't all look as though they came from the same catalogue.
It is also the kind of place where you can actually spend time indoors. That sounds obvious, but it matters on the Côte d’Opale, where the weather can very much have its own plans.
Local produce, homemade cake and a very good wine fridge
We were very happy to discover that breakfast is taken seriously here. Not in the hotel-buffet sense, but in the much nicer sense of someone actually putting thought into what ends up on the table.
Jérémy makes his own granola, there are local yoghurts, fresh seasonal fruit and juice, and the butter comes from Le Beurre Dupont. But what really caught our attention was the cake. There is something particularly nice about knowing that it was made the day before, not because someone has to tick a box on a breakfast checklist, but because baking is simply part of the preparation. By the time you sit down in the morning, you can still catch the smell coming from the kitchen.
It gives breakfast a very different feeling. More like being at a friend’s house where someone has got up before you and made sure there is plenty to eat. You can pour yourself another coffee, take your time, have some fruit, go back for the cake. There is no sense that you need to get in and get out.
And then there is the honesty bar, which carries exactly the same feeling into the rest of the day. You can help yourself to soup, pasta, canned fish, crisps and, thankfully, there is always fresh bread on the table. Jérémy and Nicolas make sure there is plenty, so you can come back after a day out and put something together without having to think too hard about dinner.
If you fancy making more of an evening of it, you can also ask ahead for one of their apéro plates, which are clearly a favourite. Choose a bottle from the wine refrigerator, add the plate and find yourself a spot somewhere in the house. That's dinner sorted.
It is refreshingly uncomplicated. You eat when you want, take what you fancy and make yourself comfortable. And somehow, between the cake in the morning and the bread and wine later on, food becomes another part of what makes Moulin Moulin feel so welcoming.
Go outside
The pond is one of the best things about Moulin Moulin. It sits right outside the house and gives the whole property a completely different dimension. You can sit by the water, walk around it or simply look out at it from the house.
And then, of course, there is the Côte d’Opale.
The beach is only a few kilometres away, with the dunes and coastline making it very easy to spend the day outside. Dannes is also well placed for exploring this part of the coast, whether you want to head towards Sainte-Cécile, Le Touquet or further along the shoreline.
What we like about this part of France is that the landscape doesn't need much dressing up. You get the sea, the dunes, the wind, enormous skies and that particular northern light that can make the water look completely different from one hour to the next.
After a day by the coast, coming back to Moulin Moulin feels right. Back to the pond, back to the house, back to the honesty bar and, if you're anything like us, probably back to whichever room or corner you decided was your favourite.
That is what makes Moulin Moulin work. It isn't trying to be a hotel with a personality. It has one already.
And spending a weekend here feels a little bit like being introduced to it.
