Le Clos St François

The day has been long & rewarding. You've done the vertiginous Allier gorges which, if (like me) you have the head for heights of a chrysanthemum, will have left you a gibbering wreck. You've roamed the Massif Central uplands, forest and valleys. You've darted into Le Puy for the rock-topping churches, into La Chaise-Dieu for the outstanding religious tapestries and into Chavaniac-Lafayette to pay respects to the Marquis, America's favourite Frenchman (competition is not intense). Now you need to rest the head. Le Clos is in a stone farming hamlet too remote, too small (pop: 30) and too quiet to show up on radar. Once this was a convent keeping nuns well away from any conveivable worldly temptation. Now it's been transformed into the most graceful & warm-hearted B&B you could hope to find in the middle of nowhere. Sisters' cells have been knocked through to create rooms with space and splendid contemporary comfort. But they also retain memories(though not in the plumbing department; the bathrooms are modern, well-equipped & work without the traditional French plumbing clank.) There's a game- and book-laden lounge for guests and, should you need it, a rather lovely and still-consecrated little chapel. It's used for country music concerts when the country music festivals sweeps into Craponnne, just up the road. Owner Karine Chouvet presides downstairs over the sort of rustic kitchen and dining room which design magazines are always trying to re-create and never get right. The heavy wood furniture, open stove, grandfather clock and flowers dispense more well-being than you'd pick up in a month in a spa. Ms Chouvet herself, a young mum in her 30s, brings warmth and wit to the business of welcoming people. Also - after an early career in hotels and cruise-ships across the world - a satisfactory command of English. Dinner is good Auvergnat food, excellent conversation and great fun, breakfast is continental - and you may digest both in either of two walled gardens. Or you may wander the village, nodding to farmers and dodging tractors, before getting lost in the woods. My wife and I stumbled upon this spot quite by accident, as we quartered the Haute-Loire region of the Auvergne. We shall return on purpose. For from €55 for B&B doubles, and €19pp for dinner, it's a delight.