TRAVEL: 'It was a life-changing trip': My Trafalgar tour through France & Italy PART 2

Wendy Squires savours the delights of hassle free travel through France and Italy. Here’s part 2 of her story …

Arriving in Avignon, we head to Les Jardins do Quai, the restaurant of local culinary legend Daniel Hubet, for our first Be My Guest dining experience. In this case, we took over the quaint French Provencial restaurant for a three-course traditional lunch followed by a trip into the kitchen for a private cooking demonstration of the art of making macaroons.

Full of delicious red wine and bonhomie, we move on from lunch to the City of Popes, Avignon, driving through a hole in what was once a giant fortress wall and into the famed city for a wander.

The Papal Palace was awe-inspiring, from the marks of the hot oil poured to thwart intruders hundreds of years ago that still stain its walls today, to the Gothic architecture as ominous now as it must have been when first erected.

Again, there is plenty of time to roam and meld in with the locals, although it is hard to be completely inconspicuous when encountering postcard perfect cobbled streets, slack-jawed with awe and squealing in delight.

A local meal looking on at the Palais de Papes was the perfect way to wind up a perfect day, and when the bus came to take us to our hotel in Aix-en Provence some hour’s drive away, I have never been so happy to sit back and let someone else do the driving.

Again, the Grand Hotel Mercure le Roi Rene Aix-en Provence was centrally located, making the morning walk to the local village markets a cinch.

After a casual wander and some excellent shopping (ballet slippers and a jaunty French polka-dotted scarf) we were off again, back into the countryside of the National Park of Luberon, made famous in the film A Year In Provence.

Arriving at our Be My Guest location for lunch meant a trip down a dusty off road flanked with olives growing one side and grapes the other, on to sublime Domain de la Dorgonne chateau and winery.

Not only did the owner Baudouin Parmentier show us how their moresome organic wine is produced, he then escorted us into his superb home for a lunch of fine food and much wine tasting, followed by a tour of the residence itself.

More than just a leisurely meal, it was as if we were the guests of dear French (and very well off) friends who wanted us to enjoy the lifestyle which they so obviously love. This is the point of the Be My Guest experiences, truly one-off insider insight in to what it is like being a guest in someone’s home or restaurant. And none of us wanted to ever leave.

On the way back to Aix en Provence, we managed a trip to the precariously perched town of Gordes just in time to watch the sun turn the creamy village into a hillside mosaic of dappled pink and rose. But before home there was another unforgettable meal at the Hostellerie le Chateau.

Perched on the banks of the rushing la-Sorgue river, the restaurant specialises in trout caught metres away (with roasted almonds – delicious) and frogs legs drenched in butter and garlic. Again, it was just us and a few locals, and the chef was on hand to talk through the meals and his life I Provencial paradise.

The following day involved travelling from Provence to port town of Nice, where we caught a plane to Rome. Upon arrival, we were taken on a four-hour drive in to the heart of Tuscany, to our home for the next two nights, the Hotel Villa il Poggiale.

To say the villa is spectacular is not adequate – it is the epitome of a Tuscan renaissance magnificence, a grand old darling of staircases, narrow corridors and cavernous rooms looking out over the Chianti grape vines flickering like gold filigree in the afternoon light.

After checking in to my princess worthy suite with its massive four poster bed, we gathered in the villa’s dining room for another feast, washed down with local wines and unending conversation.

Enamoured with our chateau, some fellow excited travellers and I grabbed a bottle of Limoncella liquor and headed to the gardens for a nightcap, the full moon casting a violet wash over the cascading countryside as we all laughed ourselves silly. Bellisima.

It was hard to imagine anything topping the trip so far, but somehow the following day managed to do it …

Wendy Squires travelled as a guest of Trafalgar Tours.  To read part 3 of Wendy’s adventure, click here.