Château Arnoux

Pierre Gleize would still be making sugared violets in Apt if he hadn’t stopped one day at an 18th-century posthouse in Château Arnoux. Inside he found a new career as chef & the future Madame Gleize, whose family had run the inn for generations.

Château Arnoux is close to Provence’s northeast border, a region that Provençal author Jean Giono called a ‘land of no excesses’, & that Pierre Gleize compares to the Scottish highlands. “But we have everything here, save good beef & good cream,” he says, “and what’s more - we have sunshine!” From nearby Sisteron comes the lamb - not fattened on grass but on wild rosemary & thyme - to make the Gleize family’s jambon cur d’agneau, cured & sliced like Parma ham. From their gardens come sweet hyssop for roast rabbit, young spring vegetables, fragile courgette flowers, & lavender honey to baste a roast duckling. This is also one of the few starred Michelin restaurants to serve the old-fashioned local dishes tarte aux potirons (pumpkin pie) and pâte de coings (a sweetmeat of sugared quince paste).