David and Sandrine Ausset 

Overnights spent in the south of France can be a large part of the experience, especially if you choose a place such as Domaine des Clos, an 18th century farmhouse planted squarely amid acres of grapevines on the outskirts of Beaucaire.



Lovingly restored by its owners, David and Sandrine Ausset, it has a great swimming pool set amidst gardens, delightfully imaginative play areas for children, tables and chairs temptingly tucked beneath the shady canopy of 200-year old trees and lots of intimate spots for lounging and sipping wine over end-of-the-day conversations.

There are lots of great places to lounge and relax such as this intimate spot on a porch.

Among its rooms are several apartments, each with a complete kitchen, so it’s ideal for families or others who are watching their expenditures and  looking for a central location from which to explore by car. Accommodations are air conditioned ‑ important in the hot and sunny summer weather in the south of France.
Although set along an unpaved country road probably little changed through the centuries, it’s within less than 20 miles from Nimes, Arles, the Pont du Gard, Provence and many lovely wineries and restaurants.  It makes a great headquarters for a week-long stay and that’s just what many folks do, coming from throughout the world, year after year.



When Sandrine prepares one of her twice weekly dinners and serves it in the large dining room it’s abuzz with a half dozen languages, although English is always among them. Sandrine is  a wonderful cook and our small group of writers enjoyed a dinner and a lovely breakfast there. As David showed us a scrapbook filled with photos of the restoration process we spotted preserved details that revealed the dining room had once been a stable for probably a dozen or more horses.

We played a rousing game of Foosball at the edge of the dining room, which had been transformed from an old stable. By the looks of this little guy, it's a game dating at least from the '50s.

Although wi-fi service was sometimes spotty, it was easy to put the modern world away in exchange for a rousing match of Foosball on a non-automated device probably dating from the 1950s or a round of ping pong outdoors near the courtyard.
Most will agree that prices are reasonable. A week in a spacious apartment for four guests goes for about $900 at current exchange rates, for instance.  As is the case throughout France, breakfast is included in room rates.

The breakfast table awaits in the dining room.

Tripadvisor contributors review Domaine des Clos at and the inn’s own website offers an English translation with full descriptions and the opportunity to book online.  Go to http://tinyurl.com/6mnyrp6 to see Tripadvisor reviews and find the Ausset’s own website at http://www.domaine-des-clos.com.

The size of the A380 is apparent by looking for the baggage handler slightly to the right of center and seeing how his size compares to the fuselage. Bags are in containers aboard this AirFrance flight, possibly organized by final destination, but I havent confirmed that. But total weight of carryon bags must be 12 kg. or less so even tho my bag was regulation carryon  size, my electronics put me over and I had to check it.  

I first realized it was a mighty big plane when I watched the crew file aboard as I waited for my flight to Paris at Dulles Airport in Wash DC.

I counted 22 uniformed flight attendants boarding AirFrance 039.

If it's not the biggest plane in the air is the biggest one Ive flown. It had two levels and carried 538 passengers. Its an Airbus 380 and it's 72 meters (78 yards) long and with a 79 meter (260 feet) wingspan.

From my coach seat near the rear on the starboard side of the A380 the wing seemed to go on forever. This was shot as the plane was preparing to land at Dulles. To me the muddy river indicated there had been recent rain storms in the area. 

My metric conversion gene is not a strong one, but as I sat in my window seat and looked out on the wing it seemed to go on forever. We had 538 passengers on board, according to my flight attendant, but I understand that the aircraft can be configured to carry more than 800 passengers - to me an almost impossible number to imagine traveling at jet speed across the vast Atlantic.

After a flight of about 7-some hours, I arrived in Paris at 6 a.m. local time (midnight at home) and tried to keep my wits about me to find my connecting flight to Montpellier. It was a very long walk to my gate in Terminal 2E at Charles de Gaulle International and I arrived with only a few minutes to spare before boarding a much smaller aircraft for the hour-plus flight south. At that point I was wishing I'd taken the train since the highspeed TGV boards from the airport's lower level and the ride takes about 3 hours...plenty of time for a nap.

Montpellier is near the Mediterranean in the south of France and I am joining a group of wine and travel writers who will be shown around the unique terroir that helps to produce some very nice wines. Our trip through Languedoc begins tomorrow so stand by and if wi-fi and time is available I'll be telling you about it. Resources: www.airfrance.us and www.franceguide.com

I've begun doing my homework for a France wine and food trip I'll be taking in a few weeks. We'll be in Languedoc, the area in the southeast part of France where one of my favorite wines comes from. It's called Picpoul de Pinet and it's an inexpensive white that is our summertime house wine. To celebrate being invited on this trip I bought a bottle of it to drink this weekend.
The wine region is quite large, stretching from Montpellier which Ill fly to from Paris, to Narbonne, which we will visit on the trip's fourth day. It takes in more than 120 villages and the vineyards which surround them.
The majority of wines produced in this rather large region - the appellation called Coteaux de Languedoc - are red and rose wines. Many are now being imported to the United States and they are quite reasonably priced. I very much look forward to exploring in depth what the French call terroir at the wine chateaux I'll be visiting. Terroir is about soil, but its also about the kind of stones that make up the soil, the incline the grapes are grown on, the amount of sunlight they receive and a  number of other elements that give the wine its characteristic taste. In this country we usually call terroir a micro climate, but that word tends to understate its importance as far as the French are concerned.
I know I'm going to have to learn to spit - something I'm self conscious about - but something those who taste a lot of different wines must do on a regular basis. If I swallowed the wine in every glass of wine I'll be offered there's no way that I would be able to take coherent notes or remember much about it for my story.
The fact is, I'll be taking this trip for the purpose of developing a series of stories about the region and that's not something I could do while tipsy.
So if you and I should cross paths  in the next several weeks at a wine tasting,  please don't be offended to see me spitting my mouthful of wine into a container after I've tasted it
 It's all a part of my job, you see.