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.

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.