Guesthouse of the Olive Trees

Château de Montcaud's chic bistro serves wholehearted cuisine with Mediterranean overtones as chef Mathieu Hervé shines the spotlight on local, often organic ingredients: Gubernat duck pâté en croûte and foie gras, mustard espuma; tataki of tuna and basil-laced humus; breast of Blaches guinea fowl, spelt risotto, green peas and St George’s mushrooms. A blissful shaded terrace overlooking the grounds, a warm welcome and cordial service add the final touches to this hospitable portrait.

From a long line of bakers, chef Richard Durand has made C'la Vie a real mecca for food lovers. The food is good and life is good! The daily menu features terrific ingredients (most of them local), the flavours are distinctive, and the focus is firmly on dining pleasure. Enjoy your meal in the pared-back dining area inside, or on the terrace in the shade of a hundred-year-old plane tree. A fine selection of wines that celebrates the Rhône Valley and Languedoc, and rightfully so.

You are made to feel right at home here at La Maison, once a winegrowers' home, with a magnificent stone interior. Creative cuisine is served in the form of dishes in which a number of different elements are juxtaposed. Ludovic Davouze always makes sure to showcase local producers, and enjoys adding an element of surprise, with original combinations of flavours such as just-seared little tuna marinated with chives, with smoked aubergine and miso sauce. The patio is a joy in fine weather.

After a long and rewarding career, chef Guy Jullien continues to craft a culinary score that is unabashedly devoted to uplifting, traditional nosh with proper French overtones: foie gras flan and cream of truffle soup, fattened Bresse hen with truffles, roast rack of lamb in thyme, vanilla-raspberry ice cream vacherin… without forgetting a lineup of head-spinning truffle menus. As Gallic as La Marseillaise, the flavours are gutsy and big boned, to be savoured on the peaceful terrace in the shade of the trees in fine weather. The wine cellar is a treasure trove of regional gems. Authenticity an

In the charming, peaceful setting of this former silkworm farm, surrounded by vineyards and olive groves, dine in the resolutely contemporary interior or on the pleasant terrace in a pretty courtyard. The cuisine draws inspiration from the terroir and tradition to showcase local ingredients: aubergine caviar with extra virgin olive oil; delicious daube provençale (beef stew); pistachio financier and vanilla mousseline. As an added bonus, you can taste the wines and olive oil produced right here on the estate. Spacious contemporary guestrooms and a sense of serenity.

Young chef Hugo Mercier, who has worked at La Table d'Uzès and La Table du Castellet (during the Christophe Bacquié and Fabien Ferré periods), has learnt his trade in the finest kitchens! This conscientious chef is passionate about what he does, as well as being a stickler for house-made dishes and keeping things seasonal. That means he makes all the sauces, ice creams and other preparations himself. The lunchtime set menu, in step with the market stalls, changes every week. It is complemented at lunch and dinner by a more ambitious set menu, which is renewed every month – and even a vegetaria