Auberge de la Madone Hotel Peillon,France

The village of Peillon, a medieval treasure clinging to a cliff face, catches our imagination as the Tour de France helicopter flies over it.

At the very top stands the village church steeple. It is time to draw a little closer to those old sun-warmed stones and tiles. Here we are at last, on the terrace of the Auberge de la Madone, close to the sky and not so far from the sea. The rooms, all decorated in delicate hues, open onto the trees and mountains. But closer again, on the table, in our plates, is another wonderful landscape, a waterfall of flavours, a gradation of colours that takes us on a different journey.