La Bastide du Clos des Roses

Four of us (Americans), went to do the visit of Clos des Roses Vineyard on July 12. The visit was great; Julie (I think) spoke English well and responded to all questions and was very kind and patient. It ended with a nice wine tasting. We had made reservation for lunch at noon, right after the visit. The restaurant was completely empty including the outside terrace and the hostess asked us where we wanted to sit. We pointed to a table bordering the garden, which was dressed for four with an extra napkin with a glass at the end of the table (see picture, It was not reserved). As she started to walk us to the table, the Maître D walked quickly up to her and told her in French as if we did not exist “no, not this one, it is for five; tell them to pick one of the two in the middle”. I happen to be perfectly fluent in French but did not say anything. The three ladies and I sat down a little upset about the lack of effort and rudeness coming from the person in charge. When it came to order drinks, we ordered a couple of glasses of wine (two of us were driving). The sommelier asked if we wanted flat or sparkling water and I responded “une carafe d’eau s’il vous plaît” (tap water). He scowled, looked extremely annoyed and left. About 10 minutes later someone brought us 4 “amuse bouches” but we still did not have water or wine. I asked the young waiter for water again and he went back to the kitchen. A couple of minutes later he came back and said they could not give us a water bottle, but he would bring 4 glasses. It was hot that day and we still did not have water after 20mn at the table. We decided to leave. It is mandatory in France to provide free water in restaurants, All French people know that, tourists often don’t. They did have bottles because their bottling plant is across the hallway from the restaurant, they produce 60,000 bottles a year! It was from the start clearly a case of “we’ll just put the non-French speaking Americans where we want and we will treat them as dumb foreigners”. Only one other table had shown up by the time we left. The manager and the Maître D started following us back to the car trying to talk to us once they found out that I could speak French. The fact that they do not export any of their products may explain why they would not care about the bad publicity. Stay away from the restaurant for sure, as for the visit there are plenty of other nice vineyards in the area.