While we are in Provence, we spend a lot of time around the table, thoroughly enjoying the food before us. Most of the time that table is our own (although we are also fortunate to often find ourselves around the table in Pierre and Muriel’s home!). Readers of The Modern Trobadors know that we love to go to local markets and fill our baskets with goodies to take back to our own kitchen to cook. But, we also love to eat out. Several people with whom I correspond are each planning a trip to Lourmarin in the very near future—Kirsten in California and Sharon in…

By:
On:
In: Food, Places, Restaurants

McDonald’s in France Photo: McDonald’s The big news out of France this week is that America’s most famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) fast food joint will start rolling out its burgers on baguettes in France come April. But, hold on to your berets before you roll your eyes and start waxing sentimental and barking sanctimonious: France is McDonald’s second largest market (of course, the U.S. is its number one market) with over 1200 restaurants in the country long recognized as the home of haute cuisine. France is the second largest market for McDonald’s  Photo: McDonald’s Burgers on baguettes—les McBaguettes—is the most…

By:
On:
In: Culture, Food, Restaurants

  Chapelle St-Sixte As one drives toward Les Alpilles, along the D24 between the tiny villages of Orgon and Eygalières, about 30 minutes from Lourmarin, there’s a very tiny chapel. Framed by lovely cypress trees van Gogh surely would have painted had he ventured a little further from the hospital in St Remy, the 12th century chapel stands atop a stony knoll now dotted with olive and almond trees and an occasional patch of grass. Chapelle St-Sixte was erected on the site of a pagan temple that was built in reverence to a nearby spring. Rituals involving that spring still exist today: a couple must…

By:
On:
In: Culture, Food, Places, Restaurants

Over the hill, past the Château d’Ansouis, and through the vineyards and sunflower fields, you will find not the house of Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother, but the home of La Famille Perrière, where over sixty flavors of ice cream and sorbet are regularly offered to their very happy patrons. Nestled into the Luberon hillside, about 5 km past Ansouis (and about 20 minutes from La Bonbonnière in Lourmarin), is L’Art Glacier. Customers who make the trek to this most unlikely location for an ice cream parlor are richly rewarded by the award-winning ice creams as well as the expansive views of a beautiful patchwork…

By:
On:
In: Food, People, Places, Restaurants