So, it may have taken us a while to find this café off the beaten track in the Vercors, on the border of the Drôme and Isère regions. The same one that knocked ex-audiovisual specialists Valentine Mollero and Thomas Lecluse for six, back in 2021, which they swiftly brought up to standard, with an accent on zero-kilometer sourcing. That lunchtime, we left the parquet-floored, wood-paneled dining room to enjoy the chef’s menu in the pretty flower garden: super fresh haricots verts swaddled in a creamy garlic fromage blanc with an egg yolk; sublime trout fillet (from La Truite de la Vernaison) with skin that couldn’t be more crunchy, all glossy with fig oil and served with a stunning chard leaf cigar stuffed with Camargue rice, rhubarb, thinly sliced fig and chard stalk; and to finish, greengages and plums atop a rosemary shortbread with shiso plum syrup. And if you don’t have the strength to get back on the road, head on up to one of three guest room upstairs. // Adrien Nouviaire

FEELING THIRSTY? Organic wines and so much more: a Clairette-de-Die from Domaine Les Genêts (€4 a glass), a Touraine chenin from François Plouzeau (€7), La Vie S’Écoule, a Luberon grenache from La Cabrery (€23), or a Crozes white from the Domaine des Entrefaux (€40).

PRICE: Set menus €24.50 and €26, menu €33.