Tea at the Sofitel in Dalat, Vietnam, Is Magnifique!

By Sandra Scott

When my husband John and I stepped off the airplane at the Dalat airport we took a deep breath of the cool fresh air. It was a wonderful relief from the heat and humidity of Ho Chi Minh City. On the 30-minute up hill drive to Dalat we passed green fields and evergreen forests before arriving at the magnifique Sofitel Palace Hotel with a view of Lake Xuan Huong. The line “We’ll all come out to meet her when she comes” from the children’s song “She’ll be coming Around the Mountain” popped into my head. Waiting on the steps of the porte-cochere was a lady in a pristine white ao dai, the elegant traditional Vietnamese dress, along with several other staff members ready to take care of our luggage and facilitate check-in. One young lady carried a long tray with a steaming selection of local artichoke, green, lotus, jasmine, and oolong teas and asked us to select a welcome drink. I opted for the jasmine and John tried the lotus tea.

Room 205, our home for three days, was elegant with a small foyer, 12-foot ceilings, gleaming wood floors, and a crown valance above the bed. When the staff threw open the French windows the view to the lake was magnifique. Red is the color of happiness in Asia and everything on the welcome tray was red from the champagne to the cookies to the mousse. It made us very happy.

John and I love afternoon tea so after we had settled in and recovered from the early morning flight we headed to Le Rabelais Restaurant for afternoon tea. We stopped along the way to view the many paintings done by Vietnamese in the style of the French masters. The elegant Le Rebelais Restaurant with a view of the expansive lawns recalls the days when ladies in long dresses and men in dark suits played croquet on the lawn.

We opted for the afternoon tea with cucumber, egg, and smoked salmon tea sandwiches, plus waffles, pancakes, muffins, and scones with jams made from locally grown fruits along with a wide choice of teas including Dalat specialty teas. We ended by indulging ourselves with chocolates that included an amazing variety of flavors – strawberry, mint, and orange.

Reading the back of the Le Rabelais menu I noticed that the idea of afternoon tea, which I always thought was very British, actually started with the French. Madame de Sévigné (1626 to 1696), one of history's greatest letter writers on life in 17th Century France, wrote about the popularity of tea drinking and mentioned that, "Madame de la Sablière took her tea with milk, as she told me the other day, because it was to her taste.” It wasn’t until the late 1670s, due to political and other factors, that tea was introduced into England.

There was a lot to learn about the Sofitel Dalat. It seems that Dr. Alexander Yersin, a protege of Dr. Louis Pasteur, visited Dalat in 1893 and found the place perfect for improving ones health. A sanitarium was built where, I am sure, a variety of herbal teas were part of the curative regimen. In 1922 the Langbian Palace Hotel opened and much later became the Sofitel. The hotel was host to many important people and events. A gentleman’s agreement left Dalat untouched during the wars that occurred in Vietnam in the 20^th century. Hotel Sofitel Palace and Dalat are truly magnifique!

Visit www.vietnamtourism.com and www.sofitel.com.

Sandra Scott is a frequent contributor to travel publications and to Copley News Service and has co-authored two books on local history. She lives in Mexico, NY.
Images by Sandra and J. J. Scott

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