French Lotus guest house in Unawatuna, Sri Lanka:
In January this year I stayed with my family at this gorgeous little guest house, colonial style, named the “French Lotus” in Unawatuna, Sri Lanka. The hosts, Gaëlle and Cédric, have turned this beautiful and lovely villa, in this marvellous garden, to a great little business of theirs.
It’s fully booked high season and it pops up with great reviews a little here and there, like Trip Advisor etc.
Unawatuna is a small and cute beach town,
with unfortunately, too many tourists, the beach is quite narrow along the bay, so you get the feeling of being slightly crammed.
The beautiful empty beaches are where the surfers hang,
more of a “stormy” ocean, big waves……. so the smaller beaches, quickly get too busy! where the “other” people hang for a swim and play in the ocean.
The tourism has changed over the years in Sri Lanka,
during civil war, obviously, there was so much less of it, friends of mine travelling at that time, always brought back fabulous stories on how lovely it was to travel in Sri Lanka and that the nature and the beaches were untouched. Well things are changing, of course for many reasons for the better, but of course with an increase of tourism, comes also other problems, Thailand, where I live, is a good example.
However back to French Lotus,
where we stayed for almost a week, everything appeared perfect to me. “Luxe, calme & volupté” The way they served the breakfast, the cute porcelain à la British, old fashion tea set, great food and freshly squeezed juices of various kinds, delightful teas of course, I had 3 coffees in 10 days……..I think?. The house is a Colonial style villa, spacious and “airy” with a open-air Patio which serve as the common space for the guests. I could sit there reading almost the whole day, sipping fresh juices and teas, have a nice “siesta” in my cosy room and being just happy in the moment.
