My husband and I and two (adult) daughters are going to be Provence in May and I have a couple of questions:

1. We would like to make some winery visits and learn about the wines of the Rhône and Provence. We speak very little French. Can anyone recommend an English-speaking guide?

2. We are considering staying at Les Florets in Gigondas because it is recommended by Rick Steves. Otn the website, the setting looks great and we are not bothered there is no pool. Does anyone have any comments about the standard of accommodation? It's difficult to tell from the website

Thanks

Our friends( solement English speaking) have stayed at Les Florets twice and LOVE it! I also quite like the wines from Gigondas!

I will write back when I have more info as BIL & SIL of dear,dear friends(both US ex-pats) have a very small winery just outside of Uzes.

Lucky, lucky you! The scenery is amazing. The food is delicious and the Rhône wines are fantastic and great value.

Wine Tours: My husband & I were in Provence last October and we were guided for a day by Olivier Hickman. His website is www.wine-uncovered.com. I found out about him on this forum. It was a fantastic experience - definitely the highlight of our trip. We visited 4 vineyards from different villages - Gigondas and Vacqueras in the morning then, after lunch at Les Florets (yes! – see my comments below), Rasteau and Chateauneuf du Pape in the afternoon. The tour was very well paced with something different at each winery we visited. We have done a lot of wine tours in Napa and in Northern France where we had a lot of repetition and you have to hang around in very cold cellars. Our tour was with him was the best we have ever done. He took us to some beautiful vineyard locations. The scenery was SO wonderful! We learnt a lot about wine appreciation, tasting differences between wines, how the growers farm their vines and different techniques in the cellar. We particularly enjoyed his views on teroir and the differences between French and American wines.

If you do go with him organise a tour before seeing other wineries on your own. He recommended some other great wineries and we got a lot more out of our independent visits as a result of our tour with him.

Hotel: We only ate lunch at Les Florets - the best meal we had in Provence (ok, equal best with Christian Ettienne,Avignon) and the setting was amazing. We ate on a beautiful flowered terrace in the hills above the village. I don’t know what the accommodation is like but we would definitely sleep on the floor just to enjoy the food every night! Rick Steves know his stuff!

Have a great visit!

Thank you for the Wine Uncovered wine tour recommendation. It looks very interesting. I will do some investigating.

In our search for a 3 star hotel in the area near the Dentelles des Montmirail hills (we want to do some walking) I have seen Hotel Beffroi Vaison-la-Romaine www.le-beffroi.com. It looks very nice and is in a town. Anybody have any comments about this hotel? Am I right in assuming that there is more going on in Vaison-la-Romaine than in Gigondas?

> Am I right in assuming that there is more going on in Vaison-la-Romaine than in Gigondas? <

Yes indeed. Vaison's population is about ten times that of Gigondas (6000:600).

Vaison is definitely a more happening place, and actually seemed bigger to me than 6000 population. I don't know, just saying there are things to do there, more restaurants, etc., and there was a good market during the day I was there.

My only comment on the Beffroi, as I considered staying in Vaison one year also, is that I found comments on how difficult it is to get to/from there and the town, or perhaps even from your car, maybe you have to park a bit away. I don't remember the specifics, but I'd check that out.

Another who loved Les Floets(and the Gigandas wine)
We found no problem with a car to be at the Bellroi and downhill to town.

Many, many thanks for you all your comments. I have booked Les Florets Hotel and a Wine Uncovered wine tour to Gigondas & Chateauneuf-du-Pape - The hotel also highly recommmended Wine Uncovered.
We went for Les Florets as the location in the hills looks simply wonderful and apparently you can do walks straight from the hotel.

We've dined there twice - beautiful setting outside. The inside dining room is not as interesting. Note that it is not in the center of Gigondas. Gigondas is quite small - only a couple of buildings (including a fantastic tasting room where you can taste/buy most of the local wines).

Stu Dudley

Just saw this. We did a wine tour of the Luberon with Francois Marcou of Avignon Wine tours. It was wonderful. He picks you up at your hotel and you are gone from 9 - 5:30. He has 6 different wine tours. I think he picks up outside of Avignon but you would have to check with him. We saw 4 vineyards, had a lovely lunch (extra) and went for coffee (on him). He is very knowledgeable.