La Mirande in Avignon, France

The Pope’s Palace in Avignon, France, looms large over the walled town and its monumental stone edifice seems to draw you towards it.

After wandering the enormous cloisters and chapels you exit to find yourself in a small cobble-stoned square. The gigantic palace walls are behind and in front of you is a beautifully proportioned, two story building that was once the home of a local family and is now La Mirande, a gorgeous boutique hotel within the old walls of Avignon.

Having afternoon tea in the internal courtyard is delightful. I tried the ‘Mirande blend’ of darjeeling, bergamot and jasmine and it became my favourite. On Saturdays it’s ‘buzzy’ with locals popping in to relax and enjoy the ambience whilst sipping tea or having a cocktail.

As you enter the bedrooms you are struck by the attention to detail -in everything from the wallpaper and fabrics to the selection of organic dried fruit gathered on a plate for you to enjoy during your stay, and Dr Haushka products in the bathroom.

Being winter the hotel restaurant is closed but they offered a chef’s table dinner in the old, original below- ground kitchen. (It’s in a part of the building that dates from the C14). And so one evening 11 guests came together to share a wonderful evening beside the C19 wood stove as a local chef prepared our meal of scrambled eggs with foie gras, poached fish on sauteed fennel, roast beef with dauphinoise potatoes and fresh pineapple, with a caramel sauce, that had been cooking slowly on the stove top for 30 minutes or more.

There is a cooking school attached to the hotel and so to come back here to Avignon and enjoy some classes in the old kitchen is now one of my dreams.

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