The Irish brown bread is baked early each Wednesday morning.
By late afternoon, the table will be set, the canapés laid out, and the wine opened among the vines at Le Moulin sur Célé.
This is the weekly apéro, the French version of a Harvey’s Point meet-and-greet, and one of the hospitality hacks that Deirdre McGlone and Marc Gysling have not left behind. The drinks reception for guests often secures a repeat booking.
Seven years after selling Harvey’s Point to Austrian investor Thomas Röggla, the Donegal hotel that commanded their personal and professional lives, Deirdre and Marc are still building and still rolling out the welcomes. Just somewhere quieter.
Their next chapter grows around family, hospitality, old buildings, wine, nature and time.
At Le Moulin, in the Lot region of south west France, time moves differently.
“Our motto is pleasure, not pressure,” Deirdre says.
The Le Moulin Collection of villas, currently centred on Le Moulin and Le Malbec, is designed to feel effortless, but the ease has been carefully engineered before guests’ arrival.
Le Moulin sur Célé – a villa for 10 guests
Behind the old stone, soft beds, refitted kitchens and charming French interiors is a huge amount of instinct.
The heat pumps, modern bathrooms, air conditioning and USB points are tucked quietly away so the place still feels homely and rustic.
Guests are given time because someone else has already spent it carefully.
“Luxury, to me, is about feeling cared for,” Deirdre says.
“It’s about somebody having thought about what the guest will experience.
“That’s what we’ve always tried to do. In a simple way, not in an ostentatious way.”
The sunset view from Le Malbec, overlooking the vineyard at Le Moulin sur Célé. Photo by Rachel McLaughlin
Le Malbec, a former winemaker’s barn transformed into a romantic retreat for two at Le Moulin sur Célé.
At Le Moulin, guests can be left completely alone if that is what they want. Or they can ask for help with dinner deliveries, massages, private chefs, and maid service.
It is self-catering, but with the instincts of a hotel behind it.
Marc and Deirdre live just up the lane in a cottage also under conversion.
The apéro is also where guests get to know the family, and the family get the opportunity to endear them to their story. The connection is part of what keeps Le Moulin turning.
Deirdre McGlone serves rosé during the Wednesday evening apéro at Le Moulin sur Célé. Photo by Rachel McLaughlin
Guests gather for the weekly apéro at Le Moulin sur Célé in June. Photo by Rachel McLaughlin
The Gysling/McGlone family at Le Moulin sur Célé: Carl, Marc, Deirdre, Christina and James. Photo by Rachel McLaughlin
Below the old mill, the Célé flows gently past, framed by striking limestone cliffs that characterise the Causses du Quercy natural park.
“Continuous improvement, both in the property and in people, was always our philosophy at Harvey’s Point too,” Deirdre says.
“The river runs past but we can’t sit still and wait for something to happen.”
Each Friday morning it’s all hands on deck to changeover the 5-bed Moulin villa for the next arrivals.
“We’re back to the basics of how we first met,” Deirdre says.
“Marc was in the kitchen at Harvey’s Point and I was on reception. We both started by doing all the basic jobs.
“Now we’re back doing that ourselves.”
Deirdre McGlone and Marc Gysling walk down the walnut tree-lined lane to Le Moulin for Friday changeover. Photo by Rachel McLaughlin
The Friday changeover team at Le Moulin sur Célé: Patrick Velu, Audrey Rizo, Sabrina Carteau, James Gysling, Karen, Marc Gysling and Deirdre McGlone. Photo by Rachel McLaughlin
Patrick Velu begins gardening maintenance at Le Moulin sur Célé during changeover day. Photo by Rachel McLaughlin
On changeover day, Le Moulin moves to a different rhythm. There is a flurry of linens, toolboxes, gardening, flower arranging, replenishing the tower bar.
“It takes a village to make a village”, says Deirdre.
Deirdre and Marc are in the middle of it, alongside their three children now aged in their 20s. Christina, who has studied hotel management, helps with the apéro, while Carl, who studied architecture, and James, who studied business, are both about to graduate and have contributed to the business in many ways. Everyone has a role.
For Deirdre, a local girl from Ballintra who first worked in catering from the age of 13, hospitality has always been about people. Marc, the Swiss-born hotelier who set up his home in Donegal with his late brother Jody, helped build that ethos over three decades.
“Compared to Harvey’s Point, this is a doll’s house,” Marc says of Le Moulin.
Marc Gysling gets to work during Friday changeover at Le Moulin sur Célé. Photo by Rachel McLaughlin
Patrick Velu below and Deirdre McGlone above during changeover day at Le Moulin sur Célé. Photo by Rachel McLaughlin
There’s still work to be done daily, but the weight and worry of running a renowned 77-room family hotel with 160 staff has lifted.
In hindsight, the timing of the sale before the Covid-19 pandemic brought another kind of relief
“We would have been under the bus, emotionally as well,” she says. “I would have been so concerned for everybody’s mortgages, not to mention our own,” Deirdre says.
“As a small family-run business, even though we were getting bigger and busier, we were still just the two of us with the bank.
“Like any business, it always needed further investment.
“Every summer, the business did well and we put money away for the next project.
“We were still doing that, but we were still in bed with the bank.”
Deirdre McGlone chooses wildflowers from her garden to decorate Le Moulin ahead of the next guests’ arrival. Photo by Rachel McLaughlin
The finishing touches at Le Moulin sur Célé, where Deirdre McGlone prepares a welcome basket and personalised card for incoming guests. Photo by Rachel McLaughlin
With growth came huge personal risk.
“We remortgaged our house twice, twice, and that really annoyed me,” she says.
“One of the first things we did after we sold was get our house back into our own names.”
Looking back now, she says they did not always realise how close they were to danger.
“We were so naive,” Deirdre says.
“We were on the edge of the cliff so many times and we didn’t know how close we were.
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“Then the recession came and we realised, ‘This is serious stuff. If this goes wrong, we are in trouble.’”
“I remember our bank manager saying to me one time, “You are running that hotel with your heart, not your head,” because we were all about the customer and we were not looking at the profit.”
That heart-first approach was part of the magic of Harvey’s Point. The hotel was crowned TripAdvisor’s No. 1 hotel in Ireland for five consecutive years, while also ranking 10th in Europe in 2017.
The hotel gave them a remarkable story, but it took a lot too.
“Harvey’s came first,” Deirdre says.
“There is no doubt it came first many times.”
Marc, she says, was the stay at home parent, while Deirdre was often travelling for Harvey’s Point, doing sales and marketing, representing Donegal tourism or volunteering with female entrepreneurs through Acorns and the Donegal Women in Business Network.
Deirdre McGlone and Marc Gysling at Château de Haute-Serre in the Lot region of southwest France. Photo by Rachel McLaughlin
The French chapter has now given the family moments to cherish together.
Deirdre describes it as a “common purpose”.
“There was every chance or possibility that, once we had sold the hotel, Marc and I would slide off into retirement and the kids would go off to their different corners of the world. And nothing wrong with that. That happens in a lot of families,” Deirdre says.
“But it just happened that the kids are following their own dreams and we haven’t burdened them with the headache of a big property like Harvey’s Point was.
“But they have got something here that they can mix as a holiday and a business and a lifestyle.”
The children now “dip in and dip out”, while Marc and Deirdre continue to run the operational side.
The Tower Bar at Le Moulin, with James Gysling pictured in the background. Photo by Rachel McLaughlin
Christina Gysling with guest Marisa during the weekly apéro at Le Moulin sur Célé. Photo by Rachel McLaughlin
Life in France has also forced a different pace.
Deirdre describes this corner of the Lot as “more rural than rural Donegal”.
It has taken time to adjust.
“I never used to be able to really relax,” she says.
“If I’d go for a walk, it would be to get the walk done. Now we go for a walk to really experience nature.
“The slower pace is beginning to suit me. I’m not there yet!”
In the local community, they are neither locals nor tourists.
“We’re kind of in between and accepted as the mad Irish people from down the road,” Deirdre says.
They worked to build that trust from the beginning.
“One of the first things we did was invite the whole community down to the big house for a party by the river,” she says.
“Bit by bit, they saw the project evolving.
“I think there’s a certain pride in the area when people see an old house being maintained, and lived in and loved.”
Relax by the river at Le Moulin sur Célé. Photo by Rachel McLaughlin
Le Moulin, which sleeps 10 across five bedrooms. Photo by Rachel McLaughlin
The terrace at Le Moulin sur Célé, overlooking the peaceful French countryside. Photo by Rachel McLaughlin
Le Moulin sur Célé. Photo by Rachel McLaughlin
That sense of stewardship has become part of the project.
After buying Le Moulin in 2020, Marc and Deirdre continued to invest in nearby buildings. In 2021, they bought Le Séchoir, a former tobacco drying building, and La Cave, an idyllic old house with shuttered windows, which includes La Grangette, where farm animals were once kept.
Le Moulin itself sleeps 10 across five bedrooms, while Le Malbec is the newest property to be offered for guests this summer – a one-bedroom romantic retreat for two overlooking the vineyard.
The bedroom Le Malbec, a luxury retreat for couples at the Le Moulin Collection in southwest France.
Harvey, the Gysling family dog, pictured at Le Malbec. Photo by Rachel McLaughlin
A successful harvest from their own vineyard has produced 300 litres of wine – more than they know what to do with, but there was plenty of cause for toasting a glass or two in the home of the malbec grape.
Deirdre says they are not wine experts and make no claim to be. Groundskeeper Patrick Velu brought generations of local winemaking knowledge to the first bottling experience.
Their own wine is not for sale yet. Deirdre laughs that it is “not that good” and is mainly for gifts.
“It makes you feel all warm inside,” Deirdre says. “It’s a full-bodied wine rather than a light one. Not in terms of the alcohol content, but in its make-up.
“I find it fascinating that, by chance, we found ourselves living in the home of a wine we love.”
The first wine harvest to be gathered by the Gysling and McGlone family. Photo by Rachel McLaughlin
Sip Malbec and slow down at Le Malbec. Photo by Rachel McLaughlin
But the meaning is in the making. The wine, like much of the project, has taught the family that not everything moves according to schedule.
The first two years brought disappointment. The grapes grew beautifully, but by the time they thought about harvesting, it was too late.
“The grapes disappeared almost overnight because the birds and wild animals treated themselves first,” Deirdre says.
They moved earlier last autumn.
The timing came with a Donegal clash. Deirdre and the family are stalwarts of the Donegal Camino, the seven-day fundraiser for Cancer Care West in Donegal. When word came from France that the grapes were ready, Deirdre and James had to leave before the end of the walking festival and rush back to join the harvest. This time, the family finally got their own grapes safely in.
“Nature decides the schedule,” Deirdre says.
Grapes, renovations and new beginnings all take their own time.
Selling Harvey’s Point gave Deirdre and Marc something they had rarely enjoyed during the busiest years: breathing space.
“We got two benefits. It took the financial pressure off us. But the biggest gift of all is time,” said Deirdre.
“It is ironic because when we owned the hotel, we had no money and no time, and now we have both.
“We had our 30 years. We passed the baton on to the next chapter of its story. No regrets. Never one.”
Visit: www.lemoulinsurcele.com
Watch: Marc Gysling and Deirdre McGlone in conversation with Rachel McLaughlin.