Hospitality Meets Gemmology: My New Experience of Jochen Leën’s 5-Star La Butte aux Bois Hotel

When jeweller and gemstone connoisseur Jochen Leën invites you to experience his gem-infused stay at the 5-star La Butte aux Bois hotel, you know you’re in for something unforgettable. Tucked away in the leafy serenity of Lanaken in Belgium, at the edge of Hoge Kempen National Park, this Relais & Châteaux hideaway is no ordinary resort. It is Jochen’s living universe of natural beauty—a place where fine jewellery, gems, minerals, natural history and hospitality come together to create an experience unlike anything else on earth.

I wrote about my first stay at La Butte aux Bois back in 2022, shortly after the hotel first opened. It felt like stepping into another world—one conjured from Jochen’s imagination where you might relax among fossils and gems and dream beneath meteorites. As he put it, the hotel is “the largest jewellery boutique that someone can sleep in”, a description that still feels perfectly apt today.

Returning now, a few years later, I’m struck anew by that spirit of wonder and curiosity that accompanies a stay at La Butte aux Bois. It feels fitting, somehow, that a jeweller as visionary as Jochen would channel his passions into an environment where art, geology and nature meet, and welcome others to share in it firsthand.

For my second visit, I came to enjoy three new experiences: the freshly refurbished moon surface-inspired suite, the new jewellery boutique and the hotel’s one-of-a-kind Gem Dinner in the hotel’s secret Wunderkammer. The latter is a unique concept of an evening where gastronomy meets gemmology in a sensory journey celebrating the beauty of the earth and all it creates.

Of Dinosaurs and Diamonds: Inside Jochen Leën’s Living Museum

When the Belgian jeweller took the helm of La Butte aux Bois in 2020, he set out to reimagine what hospitality could be. A passionate collector of gemstones, fossils and exceptional artefacts, Jochen has transformed the estate into a cabinet of curiosities fusing design, nature and discovery. Iconic mid-century furniture mingles with contemporary art, Missoni textiles and museum-worthy specimens. 

In the lobby you're greeted by a 1970s Willy Rizzo dry bar, glittering crystal formations and, in a surreal twist, the leg of an Allosaurus beside a giant Triceratops skull. Beyond the glass doors, an Arne Quinze sculpture unfurls in the gardens, its sinuous forms echoing the natural beauty within. Everywhere you turn, Jochen’s taste for the rare and the remarkable leaves its mark.

I’m here for the private Gem Dinner, but first, of course, I must check in. My suite, named Luna Aurea, is designed to be a portal into another planet. Conceived as a celestial retreat, it merges wellness with wonder: a private sauna, double rain shower, whirlpool bath and a sunken conversation pit all overlook a sculpted “moonscape” garden dotted with real meteorites and fragments from the Moon, Mars and beyond.

In 2023, Jochen opened his eponymous boutique within the hotel. As evening falls, I take a stroll around before my dinner to whet my appetite for what’s to come.

The Jochen Leën Boutique

The boutique at La Butte aux Bois is a natural extension of the hotel’s philosophy: part gallery, part atelier, part sanctuary for the extraordinary and the exquisite. A first-generation jewellery designer and gem collector, Jochen has spent nearly two decades forging a career based on curiosity and courage. Since founding his eponymous brand in 2008, he has built an international reputation for working with niche and extraordinary gemstones—minerals so rare they often exist in quantities small enough to fill a single hand.

From his Antwerp atelier, Leën oversees every stage of creation, from sourcing rough stones from self-contained mines to collaborating with the master cutters and goldsmiths who bring his vision to life. His pieces have been recognised with Belgium’s coveted Handmade in Belgium craftsmanship label, and his reach now spans both fine jewellery and natural history through the Granada Gallery, a joint venture that unites gemmology, fossils and geological art under one banner.

The opening of the boutique in 2023 cemented the connection between his two great passions: hospitality and high jewellery. Here, surrounded by fossils, minerals and objets d’art, guests can encounter some of Jochen’s most mesmerising creations.

Showstopping Jewels

Among a variety of designs, one jewel in particular stopped me in my tracks: a necklace set with 313 carats of oval pezzottaite, also known as raspberry beryl. Found only in the Sakavalana Mine in Madagascar, the entire deposit was depleted just months after its discovery in 2003, making pezzottaite one of the world’s rarest gemstones. Rather than symmetry, Jochen frequently favours spontaneity. Diamond clusters orbit three of the pezzottaite, a timeless setting made thrillingly modern through the contrast with the minimal claw settings that hold the remaining stones.

No less entrancing is a Paraíba tourmaline bracelet, set with 49 carats of mixed-cut stones. Some 50,000 times rarer than a diamond, Paraíbas are beloved by Jochen for their unpredictability. While most know the famed neon turquoise hue, few realise that unheated stones are also discovered in shades of violet, purple, pink, yellow and green. This bracelet celebrates that spectrum, pairing vivid blues with flashes of pink.

Alongside it sits a striking white gold bracelet alternating pure blue aquamarines with subtler blue-green tones in a playful mix of cuts and proportion. And finally, the Quadripod ring, bold and sculptural, which sets an intense 28.85-carat oval rubellite in four satisfyingly chunky claws of 18k white gold.

My Gem Dinner at La Butte aux Bois

The jewels I described above are often hidden in a safe, to be discovered exclusively at the Gem Dinner. In the evening, I make my way to the Wunderkammer, the hotel’s hidden chamber of secrets, tucked between the Michelin-starred Restaurant Ralf Berendsen and the Bistrôt Le Ciel. Here, my eye is immediately drawn to the sculptural centrepiece: the Vortex Table, a work of art whose swirling form mirrors the cosmic beauty of the stones about to be unveiled.

The evening unfolds over four courses, each one paired with fine wine and a curated selection of gemstones, presented by Jochen’s in-house gemmologists. Before my first course arrives of four freshly shucked oysters, my eyes settle on the curiosities around me from Granada Gallery, including a spiky Colombian mango quartz and a Canadian ammolite. This opal-like mineral shimmers with a vivid play of colour, the result of a fossilisation process in which the animal’s shell recrystallised over millions of years to create swirling iridescent hues.

The lights dim and, under the soft glow of a UV torch, Paraiba tourmalines gleam like a tropical ocean, a 110-carat Tajikistan spinel fluoresces with inner fire, shrouded in plumes of smoke as it emerges from a bowl of bubbling water like a hidden treasure. For each gem, there is a corresponding culinary note, for example, the fire of a ruby echoing a red wine reduction.

The atmosphere is intimate and welcoming, with guests encouraged to touch, hold and admire the stones between courses, most of them loose and unmounted. Then there is the distinctive orange blaze of the pezzottaite necklace, a signature Jochen Leën design. In my 16 years in the industry, I have never seen pezzottaite this large and with so few inclusions.

It is, quite literally, a feast for the senses. These are extremely precious stones, certainly, but the way in which they are presented gives plenty of room for curiosity, questions and, of course, photographs. Designed for 2-6 guests, for those who wish to experience it for themselves, the Private Gemmological Dinner begins at €360 per person, or from €239 when paired with an overnight stay—a small price for an evening that is truly out of this world.

With La Butte aux Bois, it’s clear that Jochen has accomplished what he set out to achieve: to transform hospitality into an art form. This magical retreat is a world unto itself, one that invites us to look closer and see beauty in all its natural forms. Whether you come for the gemstones, the gastronomy or simply to unwind amid the tranquillity of the forest, one thing is certain—you will leave with your sense of wonder fully restored.

Alongside a top-class stay, you can also enjoy a relaxing time at the Shiseido spa, work out in the gym, go to the swimming pool and enjoy hiking in the nearby forest. You can book your stay at La Butte aux Bois and find out more about the Private Gemmological Dinner via the website.