Lakaz Chamarel

Accommodation

Scattered around the main building, the 20 Rooms and Suites have different decor representing the diversity of different cultures on the island. Each room declines its ethnic influence in its furniture and its decoration: China, Africa, India, or simply tropical. The wood, the slate, the beams, the terracotta, the ton ochre, beige and rust typically confer to this Exclusive Lodge, a Mauritian charm. The terraces open on the infinite one; the bathrooms to open sky make it possible to benefit from the spectacle of surrounding nature.
Room Categories: Lakaz standard, Lakaz Superior, Garden Pool Suites with private pool, Seaview Pool Suites with private pool and an Exclusive Pool Suite « Piton Canot »
Read more about the accommodation at Lakaz Chamarel
20 Rooms
3 Lakaz standard of 50 m2, 4 Lakaz Superior of 60 m2, 8 Garden Pool Suites of approx. 95 m2 with private pool, 4 Seaview Pool Suites of approx. 110 m2 with private pool, 1 Exclusive Pool Suite « Piton Canot » of approx. 120 m2 with private pool and sea view kiosk.
All rooms and Suites equipped with:
Ceiling Fan, citronella essential oil, bathrobes, slippers, mosquito nets, sponges & pool towels, pillow menu (for a more comfortable sleep), mini bar, hairdryer, telephone, tea and coffee making facilities, safe, iPod dock and Free WIFI (Bar & Rooms/Suites)
Lakaz Standard (“Feraye, Dibois, Bambou”)
Room : Double rooms of 50 m2: (“Feraye, Dibois, Bambou”) with a terrace, at a good distance from each other and overlooking a swimming pool. Each room has a bathroom with an open air shower.
Capacity : 2 adults
Lakaz Feraye
The name ‘Feraye’ means iron in Creole.
We wanted to give this room a touch of our oriental influence with its forged iron furniture designed by a small Mauritian craftsman; in the bathroom an olive tree: the culture of the olive tree would have started more than 4,000 years before Christ; it is the symbol of longevity and hope, of peace and reconciliation, of strength and wisdom.

Lakaz Dibois
The name ‘Dibois’ means wood in Creole. We wanted to give to this room an Indian style decoration representing the Indian influence in our culture. The paintings are the Works of Mauritian artists who are also our friends! The carved furniture were imported from India. In the bathroom, a frangipani tree, symbol of divinity. In India and in Mauritius as well, its flower, a symbol of freshness, feminine and seduction, is used to make necklaces for ceremonies.

Lakaz Bambou
With a bamboo planted in the bathroom, this room has in its decoration an Asian touch which represent the Asian influence in our culture. The symbolism of the bamboo is linked to friendship and to the bearer of joy. In Feng-shui, it is the symbol of Youth! It also represents robustness and flexibility as the bamboo bends but does not break. But the image that strikes me and which I would like to share with you is the one of human relationship: the bamboo is a plant which grows very rapidly and takes as much time to grow by 20 or 30 cm as to create a knot before growing again.

Therefore the knots delay the growth of the bamboo but they give it its solidity. Sometimes to grow or to move quicker, we prefer to avoid conflicts so that we do not lose time with our knots. But a bamboo without knots will not be able to resist the next big storm… Our conflicts are as essential to the forging of our human relationships as the knots are to the bamboo
Lakaz Superior (Kaz Namasté, Kaz Tropikal, Kaz Zen, Kaz Africa)
(Reshma, Paul et Virginie, La Dame Créole and Kithnou Suites)
Lakaz Superior (Kaz Namasté, Kaz Tropikal, Kaz Zen, Kaz Africa)
Rooms : Superior rooms of 60m²(“Namasté, Tropikal, Zen, Afrika”), with a terrace, spaced the one of the others in the garden, and overhanging a swimming pool of 16meters and two thatch roof kiosks (bar and lounge). Each room has its bathroom with an open air shower:

Capacity : 2 adults + 1child or 3 adults
Kaz Namasté
In its translation, Namasté is a reflection of the way our heart welcomes the others, this is why we have chosen this name…Namasté or Namaskar is a greeting. According to Indian tradition, with the hands in the anjali position over your head, one salutes God; with the hands in front of the face, one salutes our spiritual guide, and with the hands in front of our breasts, one salutes one’s fellow beings. It could be translated thus: ‘I salute the sun in you’ or ‘I salute the divine in you’, or still ‘The divine in me welcomes the Divine in you’. In Sanskrit, the word Namah+Te = namaste which means I bow in front of you. The painting represents women wearing saris and dancing. Painting made for this room by Kalindi Jundoosing, a Mauritian artist. In the bathroom a frangipani tree symbol of divinity. In India and in Mauritius as well, its flower, symbol of freshness, and seduction, is used to make necklaces for ceremonies.

Kaz Tropikal
This room is dedicated to life under the tropics… In the image of this tropical garden around us, and this tropical Island where we live. The painting representing our plantations at Lakaz was painted by a friend and Mauritian artist when we had just reaped our first banana bunches…

Kaz Zen
We wanted to give to this room a touch of our Asian influence with its natural stones on which rest the wooden bed and in the bathroom, the traditional bamboo used in Asia for its various benefits. The symbolism of the bamboo is linked to friendship and to the bearer of joy. In Feng-shui, it is the symbol of Youth! It also represents robustness and flexibility as the bamboo bends but does not break. It is a plant which grows very rapidly and takes as much time to grow by 20 or 30 cm as to create a knot before growing again. Therefore the knots delay the growth of the bamboo but they give it its solidity. Sometimes to grow or to move quicker, we prefer to avoid conflicts so that we do not lose time with our knots. But a bamboo without knots will not be able to resist the next big storm… Our conflicts are as essential to the forging of our human relationships as the knots are to the bamboo.

Kaz Afrika
In this room, the first bed and the first bedside tables of the house built from the ‘Tekoma’ tree, a solid and nice wood; we collected those broken trees and branches in the forest of Chamarel after a cyclone to build the first pieces of furniture for Lakaz. The influence of Africa is present in our Mauritian culture particularly through our national Sega!
Garden Pool Suite
« Reshma, Paul et Virginie, La Dame Créole and Kithnou Suites »
Suite : 8 Garden view Suites vue of ~95m2, with private pool and open-air bathroom and a Nespresso® Machine.

Capacity : 2 adults+2 children or 3 adults
The names we chose for our first suites were on the theme of Love in Mauritius Island.
La Dame Créole Suite
The Dame Créole has for us special meanings since our close friends are descendants of the Autard de Bragard family and of this beautiful Dame Créole which Baudelaire so admired during his stay in the island… On 25th May 1845, the review published « À une créole », first poem of Baudelaire under his own name, which will eventually be entitled « À une Dame Créole ». After that, the publications will continue, scattered over the years, until The first collection of eighteen poems « Les Fleurs du Mal » published in the Revue des Deux Mondes, on June 1st, 1855. Charles Baudelaire was received in Mauritius by Mr. Autard de Bragard. This rich and refined Creole asked him to write a few lines of poetry in honour of his wife, Mrs Adolphe Autard de Bragard, born Emmeline Carcenac.
The sonnet was composed in Bourbon (Reunion) island. On 20th October 1841, the poet sent it to Mr. Autard de Bragard, at the same time taking care to accompany the poem with a letter since it was « decent and befitting that poetry addressed to a lady should pass through the hands of her husband before reaching hers ».
Their daughter Hélène Autard de Bragard added to the prestige of this family when she married, in 1869, Ferdinand de Lesseps the inspired founder of the Suez Canal.

Paul et Virginie Suite
“Thus grew up these two children of nature. No worry had lined their forehead, no intemperance had stained their blood, no unhappy passion had depraved their heart: love, innocence, piety, endowed every day the beauty of their soul with unspoken grace in their features, their attitude and their movements”. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre ‘invented’ the sea in the literature.

It had not yet found its place in French literature except for a few lines of poetry of Saint-Amant. It found its way triumphantly through « le Voyage à l’Île de France (Ile Maurice) and through Paul et Virginie (Gustave Lanson, Histoire de la littérature française, 1894).

Bernadin de Saint-Pierre wrote “I wanted to reunite the beauty of nature in the tropics with the moral beauty of a small society. I also wished to draw attention to several great truths, among others, that our happiness consists in living according to nature and truth.” The heroin of Bernardin de Saint Pierre, Virginie said: ”One finds happiness only in looking after that of others”, a thought that I also share.

Kithnou Suite
It is during a visit to our friends in the photography Museum in Port Louis that ‘we met Kithnou’. According to Tristan Bréville, Kithnou tells the story of a great owner of the sugar industry who one day falls madly in love with an Indian woman named Kithnou. A love which will be thwarted and rendered difficult because of certain considerations and obstacles of an ethnic nature.

“We have found the scenario of Kithnou, but we are still looking for the film itself”, said Tristan Bréville.
The photography Museum is prepared to offer an important sum of money to find a copy of the Kithnou film in black and white (in 35 mm) filmed in 1924 in Mauritius by a French team, with as director the nephew of Charles Péguy. Who points out that if the main part of the filming team came from Marseilles, there were in the film a number of local participants; apparently the role of Kithnou’s Brother was played by a Mauritian, who would thus be the first local actor.

Reshma Suite
The names we chose for our first suites were on the theme of Love in Mauritius Island. Reshma is a love story lasting for many years, for many lives. Reshma was poor and she lived in India, she wove beautiful carpets with her skilled fingers when one day a handsome occidental man came to fetch her … How many years went past, I would not know but their paths crossed once more in another life and every day they weave their love with patience, respect, freedom and faith… The paintings were made by our friend and artists painters! The flame tree in the sunset has been painted by Marie Anne Maingard, and the magnificent warrior of love by Christina Smith. The stone sculpture, hand-carved, incrusted in the small wall rising towards the swimming-pool was made by Jean Pierre Rey for Reshma. You can admire certain of his ‘sculptures’ when you walk around the garden…
Sea View Pool
Suite : 4 sea view Suites of ~110m2, with private pool and open-air bathroom + Nespresso® Machine

Capacity : 2 adults +1 child/or 3 adults

Sea View Suite Tourelle Tamarin
This Suite bears the name of the mountain that is closest to the sea, on your right side(towards the north)with the huge salt basins around(the Salines): The Tourelle Tamarin mountain 548m seems to protect the people living in its surroundings. Here, as in our other Sea View Suites, Alexandrine and Denis are the Mauritian artists l’atelier Novateur who created all the artwork and works in forged-iron: lamps, branches for hanging robes/towels…

Sea View Suite Rempart
The island, of volcanic origin, emerges from the bottom of the ocean and has ‘given birth’ to the Rempart Mountain which overlook proudly on the West Coast! Its summit is 827 meters. This mountain, is one of the favourite models for painters and photographers! Pictures, hangers and other realizations in Wood and forged-iron were created by Mauritians artists, Alexandrine and Denis, from ‘l’Atelier Novateur’.

Sea View Suite Trois Mamelles
A massive atypical mountain with three peaks around 600 m heights. Their names comes from the resemblance of the three summits of the breasts. On the top of the first part, The view over the plains of Yemen is beautiful. The second part is more exposed. The slopes of the rock falling east and west are impressive. From time to time the adrenaline rush is felt when the top is near.

Sea View Suite Piton Rivière Noire
This Suite has the name of the highest peak of Mauritius! Many Mauritians enjoy walking on the trails leading at the top of the ‘Piton’. The Black River Peak is situated near the village of Chamarel and can be admired from Lakaz; It stands in front of Lakaz with its 828 meters! If you want to go up from Lakaz, the climbing will take you between 1:30 to 3hours depending on which side you want to start (with or without guide). Its summit offers stunning views of the lagoon, on tracts of sugar cane fields, on the Black River Gorges, on the west, south and even the North of the Island.
Exclusive Suite
« Piton Canot »
For our Piton Canot Exclusive Suite :
• Every evening (~6.30pm) : Snacks for aperitif served in Suite
• Fruit Platter or pastries every day
• 1 free bottle of water daily
• Nespresso® Machine

Capacity : 2 adults + 1 child /or 3 adults

Piton Canot bears the name of the mountain which is on its left and which seems to watch over her… Piton Canot 526m: From the top, what a view on the most beautiful lagoon of West coast! If you want to go to the top, you must know that the departure from Lakaz is quiet, then the climb becomes a little steeper towards the end, but the rise does not take more than 45 minutes. Works&deco made with wood, forged iron were designed and made by hand by Mauritian artists, Alexandrine et Denis from ‘l’Atelier Novateur’!
Charming rooms and suites, each with their own name, have a totally individual design to reflect the different cultures of Mauritius; dotted around the 12 hectare gardens, each has a terrace and outdoor shower. Standard and Superior Rooms are close to one of the Lodge’s two pools; however, well worth the upgrade and totally recommended by us, are the Garden and Seaview Pool Suites for their extra space (approximately 100m2), privacy and private pools. For the ultimate, choose the exclusive ‘Piton Canot’ Seaview Pool Suite and you’ll be rewarded with the best ocean views.
At the centre of the lodge is a lounge, TV room and library, plus the delightful restaurant and bar. The emphasis is on Mauritian cuisine using fresh local ingredients from surrounding villages as well as the sea; an á la carte dinner option is also available (payable locally). The kitchen also welcomes guests wishing to learn more about the chef’s recipes! The lodge has a small wellness centre which uses products made on the island; alternatively, guests can have treatments in the privacy of their own room. Something not to be missed during your stay is to take a 5-10 minute stroll to the lodge’s ‘viewpoint’; you’ll be treated to magnificent views over the ocean and the west coast – particularly magical at sunset.

Dining

The menu at Lakaz Chamarel is influenced by Mauritian cuisine, using local products to produce luxury freshly prepared meals. Breakfast is a feast with a choice of full American alongside a continental buffet selection. Beautifully presented lunch is a la carte and dinner is table d’hote. For an extra indulgence try delicious afternoon tea that is served everyday between 4pm and 5.30pm. There’s a bar serving a variety of soft and alcoholic drinks, which can be enjoyed inside or on the wooden decking outside.

Facilities

Facilities on site include two pools, a spa offering massages, a sauna and yoga sessions, a library, a TV lounge, free Wi-Fi access and bicycles hire. The lodge also provides a laundry service and a beach shuttle twice a day.

Families

The hotel welcomes families with children from 8 years old.