Unlike Spring Lake’s other, mostly American- or British-inspired Victorian B&Bs, this 1870 inn has a French flair, and a visit here will have you exclaiming “Vive la difference!” Engaging Francophile Barbara Furdyna bought the mansard-roofed structure in 1982, when she worked for IBM, but she is now the full-time innkeeper. She has renovated and redecorated the sparkling rooms in country French style, transformed hall walls into a gallery ofworks (mostly watercolors) by La Maison’s staffand larger “family,” and imbued the house with easy European hospitality.
Mornings start with a decidedly un-Con-tinental breakfast—perhaps crème brfilée French toast or a Provençal omelet with chèvre and herbes de Provence, always accompanied by baguettes, artfully arranged fresh fruit, fresh-squeezed orange juice or mimosas, and cappuccino or espresso on request. Return athappyhourforwine and cheese in front of the parlor’s gas fireplace, and at night melt beneath fluffy duvets in the soft sheets of a sleigh bed. To dissolve further, take the roomwith a skylit whirl-pool for two. Not surprisingly, the inn is a favorite of visitors from Europe and those who wish they were there.
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