My kids are culinary connoisseurs. Blindfolded, they could identify a Pizza Express Margharita  with one tiny approving nibble. It is, however, a massive dietary leap for childkind to move from a finely-tuned appreciation of doughballs’n'Nutella to a full-on French tasting menu.

Or so I thought until we arrived at Le Caveau des Gourmets, a smart little restaurant in the village of Gigondas in Provence. This is a seriously foodie destination where the chef likes to tickle adult pallets with nine or ten courses of artfully-collated food and wine pairings. In other words, the last place you would normally arrive with a 7-yr-old girl and a 4-yr-old boy.

But this a eaterie on a mission – to bring top-notch food to families with kids. So while Jane & I yummed and ummmed our way through a very grown-up food and wine selection, Scarlett and Fin were treated to a tray of nine intriguingly -coloured cordials.

Each was loaded with challenging flavours that they would not normally touch in a million years. But when the lovely staff turned it into a ‘guess the flavour’ game, they enjoyed every second. Ok, Fin violently spat out the bright-green pistachio, but otherwise the experience was a triumph.

Highly recommended if you’ve started to despair of ever again eating anything but pizza and fries.

Le Caveau des Gourmets, Le Village, 84190, Gigondas, 00 33 490 36 34 82, www.cave-gigondas.fr/mengourm.html

Baby-Friendly boltholes nearby:

Le Platane, Isle sur la Sourge, Avignon http://www.babyfriendlyboltholes.co.uk/le_platane-child-friendly-accommodation-18957.htm