"Before the Michelin reviewers, luxury resort developers, and tech billionaires descended upon Napa Valley , the region was a rustic farm community with vestiges of the Wild West. The oldest hotel in the valley, Maison Fleurie’s Victorian house began its life in the 1870s as a lively hotel and saloon—and, if you believe the stories, a bordello. Needless to say, no vestiges of its scandalous past remain in the current incarnation, but the central Yountville B&B has resisted the Disney-fication of the town around it. Maison Fleurie reopened in its current rustic, French country style the same year that Thomas Keller opened the French Laundry, and it has similarly remained a beloved (if less internationally acclaimed) local fixture. No, it doesn’t have a luxury spa or a Michelin-starred restaurant, but with a glut of both in this tiny enclave, it doesn’t need them. Instead, the charming inn has curated Provençal antiques, fragrant flower gardens surrounding its swimming pool, and a gourmet breakfast buffet so popular that the chefs wrote a cookbook. Oh, and it has that killer central location. In wine country you can’t beat that."
