Have 5 nights in Provence in June for our honeymoon. We are staying in Bonnieux and will have a car to get around to various towns in the area (and also very much looking forward to the lavender fields).
Am putting together a list restaurants to book both for dinners where I have been looking closer to our hotel and then some lunch options further afield. Here’s the current shortlist but have never been to the area so open to suggestions or feedback on any of the ones listed.
I’ve gone to Lourmarin right down the hill from Bonnieux twice in the last two years . I had lunch at La Bastide at Capelongue twice and it is excellent. Beautiful views and great food . Bacheto at the sister hotel, Le Moulin, in Lourmarin is good . For a casual lunch, I recommend Balthazar in nearby Saignon. Small and family owned but excellent food and the town is a cool place for a short visit. I am not familiar with the other restaurants that you listed. A lunch around the pond in Cuceron is always nice as well.
We also went to Le Gout de Bonheur- supposedly the only gluten free Michelin Star restaurant in the world. Terrible. Do not go. Although we did get a bottle of Rayas for less than 600 E.
We stayed at Baumaniere for two nights and ate at L’Oustau both nights to try both their menus. Both nights were excellent, it will feel very rich and French with, if memory serves, a different bread with each course. I think we preferred the carnivore to the veg menu (which is not always the case).
We also stayed at Capelongue. Dinner there at La Bastide was quite nice! Almost a break after the 2 and 3 star marathons we were on. It absolutely felt worthy of a star and had a nice freshness to it.
Also enjoyed La Table Des Amis, which is both a short distance from Capelongue, but the drive through town is more intellectually engaging than you think with a lot of one-lane roads and traffic lights to manage those. So … practice one time when you have a completely clear head. There we had a very nice night; they’ll start you off with outside time near the pool if the weather is nice with champagne and amuse, then inside for the main meal, which will feel much more the singular vision of one man (as it is). One thing to mentally prep for: there is no wine list. They walk you down to the cellar and do something halfway between an interactive conversation and … “Choose.” So I’d go in with a set conversational game plan since you can’t settle in with a list.
I’m sure other people will tell you not to focus on the Michelin star experiences. Clearly, we are not those people. Have an awesome honeymoon!