Very attached to his native Manche (the northern département with Cherbourg at its tip), the adventurous Philippe Hardy has worked in some prestigious Michelin-starred restaurants and in the kitchen of the French ambassador in Sofia. It was there that he met his wife, Nadia, a former principal dancer. Together they have transformed this former girls' boarding school into a chic and sweet little hotel-restaurant. All around, the garden and the vegetable garden thrive, providing vegetables and aromatic herbs grown from saved seeds. The other big thing at Le Mascaret is the sea: the chef never misses an opportunity to make a delicious dish with wild fish and shellfish, at a bargain price.