Mr & Mrs Smith

Minutes from the hotel, Café Fleurs (+33 (0)4 90 20 66 94) on Rue Théodore Aubanel is a pretty, elegant lunch spot with plenty of shady outdoor seating. Café de France (+33 (0)4 90 38 01 45) on Place de la Liberté is our tip for evening drinks and watching the town go by. For marvellous menus set by Daniel Hébet, head to Le Jardin du Quai on Avenue Julien Guigue (+33 (0)4 90 20 14 98). It’s charming inside but, in the summer months, try to book a table in the flower-filled garden. Finally, find holiday treatsville at Gelateria Isabella (+33 (0)4 90 20 85 42) on Esplanade Robert Vasse, which makes all comers happy with enormous portions of home-made ice-cream and sorbet.

Just minutes from the hotel, Café Fleurs (+33 (0)4 90 20 66 94) on Rue Théodore Aubanel is a pretty and elegant lunch spot with plenty of shady seats outside. Café de France (+33 (0)4 90 38 01 45) on Place de la Liberté is where to go for a drink in the evening to sit and watch the world. Save room for pudding from Isabella Gelateria (+33 (0)4 90 20 85 42) on Esplanade Robert Vasse – enormous portions of home-made ice-creams and sorbets.

The hotel can arrange wine tasting, canoeing on the Sorgue, cycle hire, golf, horse riding and cookery lessons. It will also organise vintage hire cars should you wish to don your headscarves and hit the highway in a classic wagon. Isle, as locals abbreviate it, is a major antiques centre, famed for its top-drawer (and pricey) brocante; dealers flock to the market on Sundays, and shops are open round the week. Shipping can be arranged. The hotel can arrange classic-car tours around the area, taking in the lavender fields and nougat factory in Sault, and a stop to taste goat’s cheese in Banon. There’s a terrific market in Carpentras on Fridays – go early, do the rounds, then stop for a treat at Jouvaud pâtisserie, 40 rue l’Eveché, which is so amazing it has a branch in Tokyo. Due north are celebrated wine villages such as Vacqueyras, Gigondas and Beaumes de Venise.