“Wonderful.” “My favourite of our trip.” Much praise again for this tiny “French dream hotel”. Converted from the childhood home of the owners, Michèle and Nicole Fagegaltier, it stands amid “rich countryside” in an old Massif Central hamlet (“lovely after the crowds have left”), which rises on the sides of a steep cliff topped by a feudal castle. Below, a 15th-century cobbled bridge crosses the swift-flowing Aveyron. On one side is the Vieux Pont, formerly the village café where the Fagegaltiers fried tiny fish from the river. Today, Michèle is the elegant front-of-house, while Nicole and her husband, Bruno Rouquier, win a Michelin star, 14 Gault Millau points for their “staggering”, “fantastically presented” regional cooking, eg, l”agneau de l”Aveyron avec une petite purée de citron; poitrine de pigeon rissolée. The menu d”enfant offers smaller portions of the same dishes. Dinner is in a room with “relaxed upmarket chic” and picture windows facing the river. The five spacious, modern bedrooms, in a building across the river, are “imaginatively designed” with white walls, curtains and bedspreads and wooden floors. Breakfast is taken in the “delightful” little garden. “Delicate white umbrellas” are on hand should the weather prove inclement.