Deluxe

Vaucluse, the Lubéron & Mont Ventoux: Where to Eat: Deluxe

At the top end, you cannot beat the restaurants at Hostellerie Crillon le Brave and Le Bastide de Gorde. But you will pay for the privilege, so save the experience for one of your big blowouts. I’ve found through experience that you can eat with such extravagance only once or twice in a week-long vacation – if you want to be fit to do anything else! At Hostellerie Crillon le Brave (Place de l’Église, 84410 Crillon le Brave, ☎ 33 04 90 65 61 61, fax 33 04 90 65 62 86, crillonbrave@relaischateaux.com, www.crillonlebrave.com, restaurant €€€€, bistro €€€) Chef Philippe Monti was born and raised in nearby Bédouin. His cuisine makes adventurous use of local specialties. In the restaurant – a series of stone-vaulted chambers under a 16th-century village house – we ate pink, pan-roasted foie gras in a sweet wine sauce, shoulder of wild boar (roasted and stewed) and cinnamon crème brûlée with roasted figs. If you think you can manage seven courses, try the chef’s sampling menu at €64. The Bistro is slightly more casual – decorated in bright Provençal colors. Both are open for dinner only and offer dining under the stars in good weather.

DINING PRICE CHART
Prices are for a typical prix fixe menu of two courses and a glass of house wine for one.
	€14-€19
€	€21-€34
€€	€35-€49
€€€	€50-€69
€€€€	€70-€140
€€€€€	The sky’s the limit

At the Bastide de Gordes (Le Village, 84220 Gordes, ☎ 33 04 90 72 12 12, fax 33 04 90 72 05 20, mail@bastide-de-gordes.com, www.bastide-degordes.com, €€€-€€€€€) we dined in a bright, elegant room decorated in pinks and creams, with flowers. Specialties included mushroom ravioli with Lubéron truffles and an amazing fruit soup with homemade honey ice cream. There are good value tasting menus of local specialties for €54 and, unusually for a restaurant of this class. If you aren’t very hungry you can choose a single dish, starting at about €13. A “Grill,” open for lunch, is reasonably priced. The manager is the sommelier and is passionate about his subject, so ask his advice in choosing a wine. If you are lucky, he may have some vin cuit – cooked wine – a local Christmas specialty, for dessert.

While we’re on the subject of big blowouts – the Moulin à Huile in Vaison la Romaine (Route de Malaucène, 84110 Vaison la Romaine, ☎ 33 04 90 36 20 67, fax 33 04 90 36 20 20, info@moulin-huile.com, www.moulin-huile.com/uk, €€€-€€€€€), offers seasonal menus and internationally influenced cuisine. You might find lobster or a tandoori dish on the menu. Try fois gras, simply cooked and served with a Beaume de Venise jelly. Wines are distinctly local – specialiszing in Châteauneuf du Pape and Gigondas. The chef, Robert Bardot, has won loads of awards and is a bit of a character. His own watercolors decorate the menus. The restaurant is in a brightly painted, converted olive oil mill. Dining is on a colorful veranda overlooking the river, or in a vaulted chamber. The restaurant is also open for lunch at about half the price of dinner.

A bit more down to earth is Chez Serge in Carpentras (90 Rue Cottier, 84200 Carpentras, ☎ 33 04 90 63 21 24, fax 33 04 90 60 30 71, up to €€). It has fixed-price menus of €12 at lunchtime, €25 for dinner. The pizza feu de bois is worth the visit. Other specialties might include salmon braised in cider or beef in a Vacqueras sauce. The ambiance is rustic/designer trendy; the other diners are stylish. There’s a good value children’s menu too.

Épeautre – New Life for an Old Staple Spelt, a form of wheat that was grown in the Middle Ages and eaten as a whole grain, has recently become popular on French gourmet tables. Grown alongside lavender on the Provençal uplands, it provides a lovely golden counterpoint to the rows of purply blue. On menus, it’s called épeautre and is served as a risotto, instead of potatoes or rice. It tastes like a cross between barley and rice. Look for boxes of it in French supermarkets. A popular brand is called Eblé and it’s sold near the rice, lentils and grains.

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