The best way to learn about the top restaurants is to ask the locals. I always made sure to ask the winemakers for a restaurant recommendation. Before joining Meffre last year, Taylor worked as a wine steward at the 21 Club in Manhattan. But a restaurant that is really working well is the Domaine de la Ponche in Vacqueyras. After vacationing in the area for 10 years, the couple moved to Vacqueyras from Marseille and opened their luxurious hotel in 1998.
Lunch is a set menu.
For such a small restaurant, the hotel has a deep wine list of more than 100 selections, all from the Rhone Valley. The larger towns in the Vaucluse department have weekly outdoor market days. On Tuesdays the center of Vaison is closed off to cars and every square inch of sidewalk is taken up with tables and booths manned by farmers, artists and merchants. It is no secret that the fields of Provence produce extraordinary fruits and vegetables, but it is a mouth-watering experience to see, smell and taste these gifts. Besides being strawberry season, May was also the height of the cherry harvest and the tail end of the year's first asparagus crop.