Auberge De Tavel, Village of Tavel near Avignon
Dates of stay : October 9th - 13th(4 nites)

Reason for selection :
Looking for minimum 3 star local accommodation in small village near Avignon that was not near major roads. The building also needed to be of old and built in many years gone by.

Auberge De Tavel meet these requirements based on the information provided on the Internet(which we always take with a grain of salt especially living far distances in Australia).

We also used a accommodation web page for France which provides details of over 3,500 2-5 star properties.

We were also spending 4 weeks driving thru France from Rennes to Lyon visiting Loire Valley, Central Massif, Avignon region, Annecy and Lyon.

Result was as follows :

Location :
Great. Was in the village. Only issue was that as it was post summer holidays only a few small places open to provide food and drink. However, still managed to drink local wine and eat.
Great. The village of Tavel is 12 kms(7 miles) from Avignon yet one is surrounded by farming. Tractors going thru the village, vineyards all around.

Also easy to get to local sights(most within 25km(17 miles)) of the accommodation.

Hotel structure.
Great. Built in the local stone and looked like a local building. Fits into the village appearance extremely well.

It has been renovated internally but still very tastefully done with a very french look.

Reception and staff :
Extremely good and co-operative. The owner and the back up reception mamber of staff very good and helpful.

Restaurant staff very well trained but one had to wrok a little hard with ordering as we have limited french and they had limited English.

Accommodation :
Room was quite large by European standards. Everything was clean, tidy, neat, well maintained etc. It should be noted the hotel was due to close at end of October for a period of a few weeks to do annual maintenance after the hectic summer holidays.

As such the hotel was extremely well maintained and clean.

Had a great view of the countryside from our open windows.

Breakfast :
Included in cost and was very nicely setup each day. Pleas enote for the last 2 nites of our stay we were the only ones staying there(again due to closing for a few weeks) and they still setup the breakfast for us in the sun filled breAKfast dining area. They did not cut back on the food presentation.

Restaurant :

Great food and local wines. Very silver service but nice to do occassionally. Seemed like a lot of locals use for dinner also.

Dinner in Avignon etc. was easy. Only a 20 minute drive there.

We enjoyed our stay there especially as we had the place to ourselves for 2 nites and still were extremely secure. They have a very good security system installed.

Would stay there again but most probably in April/May so one could enjoy the local village more.

Excellent personalised service but still professional. This little gem is in a tiny town, but a great place to relax and unwind. There are lots of places that you can go to read and unwind - including the lovely swimming pool. The rooms are all bespoke, but large and spacious. Would recommend dining there, fabulous menu, although pricey, is worth it. And of course you must try the wines from Tavel!