When Val and I want to enjoy a special meal, our first choice is Château des Alpilles in St-Rémy. We love to eat outdoors, so we wait for a warm evening to book a table. The place is so beautiful I even put it on the cover of my guidebook!

The manor house was built 200 years ago, then refurbished some years ago by the Bon family. Today it is a 5-star hotel with magnificent grounds.

We’ve never stayed at the hotel, but love the food at the restaurant. It’s delicious, it’s creative, and they are always able to accommodate my gluten intolerance.

Learn more about this remarkable place at Perfectly Provence!

There’s a new patisserie in St-Rémy-de-Provence, and it’s a hit. Chez Nouch opened its doors in May and is already creating a buzz. Founded by Lucie Durand, daughter of famed chocolatier Joël Durand, it offers high-quality, entirely gluten-free pastries. They are so good you wouldn’t know they weren’t made with traditional ingredients.

Cakes, cookies, entremets, bagel sandwiches, and more are available at her shop near the town’s main square, along with salads and drinks. Not just a patisserie, but also a tearoom, Chez Nouch offers cozy seating inside and out. Business is already so strong that table space ran out during the first week of operations.

Read more about this exciting new addition to St-Rémy’s food scene at Perfectly Provence!

Sleepy little Maillane, just a few minutes from St-Rémy, has a new restaurant that’s really good. As in really, really good.

Maison Bernard’s thirty-something chef, Jérémy Scalia, has already been awarded a coveted Michelin star at another restaurant. But Michelin stars lead to stratospheric prices, and Scalia didn’t want that. Instead, he wanted “accessible gastronomy, offering a refined culinary experience while remaining affordable.”

Maison Bernard is not the sort of place you eat at all the time, but when you do, you are in for a treat.

Read all about it in Perfectly Provence!

My favorite restaurant in the Luberon Valley is César, in Bonnieux. It has excellent, reasonably-priced food, a lovely view over the valley, and a charming chef. Val and I go as often as we can.

This chef, Stéphanie Intem, describes herself as “a passionate, self-taught chef and an artist at heart. My restaurant reflects who I am; I created it to be unique and in my image.”

Her dishes are indeed small works of art, a pleasure to see and to eat. She changes her menu with the seasons, to take advantage of the wonderful produce of Provence. But some ingredients remain constant throughout the year, like lamb, bull, sea bass, and sea bream. One of her specialties is stuffed vegetables, and her foie gras is available from April through November.

Have I made you hungry yet? Read more about this excellent restaurant in Perfectly Provence!

Sometimes you don’t want to cook, and if you are near St-Rémy, you’re in luck. For a simple but tasty meal, or fixings for a picnic, head to Rôtisserie Poulette. Just a short walk from the center of St-Rémy, this artisanal rotisserie is run by Lisa and Andreas, a young couple with deep roots in the area.

Poulette offers a range of roasted, smoked, and slow-cooked meats: chicken, turkey, lamb, sausage, and more. For a bit of elegance, there is even chicken cordon bleu, made with Comté cheese.

If you’d like something to accompany your main course, there are many side dishes to choose from. These include roast potatoes, corn on the cob, sautéed vegetables, and gratins—the selection changes with the seasons. And don’t forget the desserts! Everything is made fresh daily, right on the premises.

Learn more about Rôtisserie Poulette at Perfectly Provence!

Last year, our favorite restaurant in St-Rémy closed, which was a big disappointment but we understood the reason why. The owners have four young kids and it’s hard to raise a family and run a restaurant, so they made a career change. They opened a distillery dedicated to the flavors of Provence.

Their first product was a pastis (of course, this is Provence) and their product line has since exploded. They make all kinds of fruit- and herb-based liqueurs which are just delicious, and they’ve already won some major awards.

Now you might think, “liqueur, that sounds heavy, something you drink as a digestive after a meal.” But these are much lighter and lower in alcohol than the usual liqueur, and really great mixed with sparkling water for an aperitif. And there are so many flavors! Orange, peach, melon, fig, apricot, and on and on.

We had fun trying them at the distillery’s friendly tasting room. Come along and i’ll tell you all about it.

Read more at Perfectly Provence!