Le Val de Vence

The room was clean and warm, and there was off-street parking. It worked well for an overnight stop on our way home, with a simple restaurant and breakfast. The place is being redecorated and renovated, and once that's done it should look pretty smart. I'd stay again if passing through, though I might have given it five stars without the run of little problems. Better French from me might have helped get them sorted, part of the fun of an Englishman touring France. We arrived around 5.45 to find reception locked. A phone number on a plate by the door led to an automated message I couldn't understand, so we waited in the car until another guest arrived and managed to bring the owner over from a separate building. In room 103, the main light switch didn't work. At dinner, nobody offered us the fixed-price menu, though later we noticed many solo diners choosing it. At 8.15 the next morning, we went to the reception, restaurant and bar building, only to be told breakfast was in the bedroom building. The room there was unattended. It looked as if the early-rising solo diners had finished a plate of what I guessed were cold meats, and the hot milk was gone too. I managed to ask for more hot milk, which they brought, but my French wasn't good enough to ask what had been on the empty plate.