Belle Epoque origins

For over a century, Le Grand Hôtel de la Muse et du Rozier has stood as one of the most famous names in the Gorges-du-Tarn area.
Back in 1900, young Touring-Club-de-France chose a hamlet called La Muse to build a hotel able to entertain the growing amount of tourists (mostly anglo-saxons at the time). La Muse proved to be a perfect location. Close to Peyreleau town, in a beautiful landscape, La Muse is where the small river La Jonte mixes with the wild streams of Tarn.

Le Grand Hotel de La Muse et du Rozier is a bona fide example of true “Belle Epoque” style, rather majestic, and exclusively built with local stones such as “lauzes”. Back then, the Grand Hotel already was a first rate establishment, from basic stones to high class furniture.

The Canac family bought it in 1920 and kept it for a three-generations span. La Muse grew to become a favourite place for artists and intelligentsia, eager to discover this gorgeous area – and to investigate its gastronomy.


The hotel changes hands in 1978, Hugues de Leyssac as new owner. Bad news come the year after, when the Grand Hôtel is burned down to its foundation, during…renovation. Rebuilding will take over 4 years and the hotel is reborn in 1982.

2004 marks the arrival of Sandrine and Jean-Philippe Bonneville. They simply fell in love with the place ! After a decade spent overseas, working for luxurious hotels and restaurants, they had to come back to their roots – old country Aveyron. They quickly purchased the Grand Hotel, and here they are, at the head of their lovely, century-old business.
And did they succeed in giving it a brand new youth, where modern amenities go with ancient facilities.

The Touring-club-de-France has to be thanked for its great job on the Tarn and Aveyron departments, from the very first tourist guides to legible signposts, and paved roads. Let’s not mention information offices, national parks, hiking paths… But we also have to thank Louis Armand, a blacksmith from Le Rozier, who first discovered one of our main attractions, the Aven Arnand pit. The Aven Armand was later to be overly researched by Edouard Martel, known as the true father of modern speleology. This great discovery still attracts thousands of underground fanatics, and helped giving the whole area a world-wide fame. The locals, quickly picked up on the new trend and suddenly switched to boatmen to lead all these funny foreigners through the waters. But, as trends change, they stopped on playing Aveyron gondoliers, and nowadays casually rent canoes and kayaks. Or whatever’s fit.

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