La Bastide de Moustiers

Before it became a thirteen-room inn, La Bastide de Moustiers was chef Alain Ducasse’s home in the country, a 17th-century stone house in a field of lavender dotted with olive trees. It still feels much the same as when he first arrived — homey, tranquil, a perfectly dreamy vision of low-key Provençal life — only now the rooms have been freshened up by Ducasse’s designer friend Tonia Peyrot, and the garden and restaurant have been given just the sort of attention you’d expect at a Provençal inn run by one of the great French chefs of our time. In short, it’s a fine rustic hotel set in a particularly privileged corner of southern France, and a gourmand’s dream.

About that privileged setting: Moustiers sits in the heart of the Alpes de Haute Provence region. It’s an ancient town at the base of a set of dramatic limestone cliffs, a place of pilgrimage for centuries, and renowned for its tradition of artisanship and fine food. (You can’t leave without trying one of the famous biscuits de Moustiers with local lavender honey.) And against this backdrop, La Bastide is a little world unto itself, a world of profuse gardens and meandering paths.

It’s possible to explore the region on a scenic hike in the nearby Gorges du Verdon, or by climbing one of those big landmark rocks, or mountain biking in the hills. You could horse-back ride, hot-air balloon, even hang glide — but really that’s not why one comes here. The point is to take it easy: to stroll the gardens, relax with a drink in a tree-shaded courtyard or by the pretty little pool, and, most of all, to eat.

For the food, of course, is the main attraction. It starts with the gardens, overseen by a master gardner who chooses the best of the day’s produce and delivers it each morning to a spot beneath the kitchen windows. If one of the many varieties of heirloom tomatoes happens to be at its peak that day, the kitchen might turn it into a tomato sorbet, served, perhaps, with local lamb and one of the best ratatouilles on earth. This sort of stuff wouldn’t be so out of place at a Parisian temple of gastronomy, but to eat it on a garden terrace, with views of the Provençal hills spread out before you and scents from the herb garden blowing in on the breeze — well, we’ll take that over gilded mirrors and waiters in suits any day.

Please note: From mid-March to mid-April and from mid-October to December, the hotel is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

How to get there:
La Bastide de Moustiers is located approximately 55 miles from Aix-en-Provence.