Crillon le Brave

You do not check into a building here so much as into a village. Crillon le Brave sits on a hill in the Vaucluse, a cluster of old stone houses gathered around a church, and the hotel has taken over about a dozen of them, houses built through the 17th and 18th centuries. They are joined by the lanes and terraces of the village itself, so getting from your room to breakfast means stepping out into the open air, past a doorway or a fig tree, with the valley falling away on one side and Mont Ventoux filling the sky on the other. There are more than forty rooms and suites, and because each one has grown out of a different house, no two are alike. The stone keeps them cool, the shutters keep out the afternoon, and the views do the rest.

The table

Meals happen on the terraces, which is where you want to be. La Table du Ventoux, under the chef Thomas Lesage, works with what the region grows, and the cooking has the sense to stay out of its own way when the produce is this good. Lunch runs long under the white umbrellas, with the vineyards and the mountain in full view and the light doing something different every hour. In the evening the same terraces turn quieter and the valley goes blue. The Bar, with its fireplace for the cooler months, holds the middle of the day and the end of the night. Provençal wine is the obvious company, and the list knows its neighbours in Gigondas and the Ventoux slopes.

Why it's in VANE

Most hotels of this kind are a single grand house. This one is a whole place, and living inside a working village rather than behind a gate is the reason to come. Part of the Maisons Pariente group, it has kept the bones of Crillon le Brave intact while turning the stables into a spa, the Spa des Écuries, with treatments by Tata Harper, and setting two pools on the terraces so you swim with the valley below you. It is a walkers' and cyclists' base as much as a place to do nothing, with Mont Ventoux at the door and Vaison-la-Romaine, the Dentelles de Montmirail and the wine villages close by. Take your time over the mornings, eat on the terrace, and let the village set the pace.