Provence, Baux-de-Provence, Saint Rémy, …

We could have some days off end of April at Les Baux-de-Provence in South-East of France / Provence. A real nice stay actually! I finally invest the time to post-produce my photos. This time, no big equipment, just my little Canon S90 and DxO…

Ousteau de Baumanière

Ousteau de Baumanière, an excellent hotel, perfectly positioned near les Baux-de-Provence, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (which is much nicer than les Baux, too much touristic and artificial for our taste), les Alpilles, Avignon, etc. Service was really great, as the room we had. Two restaurants in the hotel, both worth a visit ;-) L’Ousteau itself which is a 2* Michelin, absolutely fantastic, and la Cabro d’Or, a 1* Michelin, which is also very interesting. We had there a “vertical” degustation menu with 10 dishes all based on different excellent local olive oils, including the dessert!

hotel ousteau de baumanière

hotel ousteau de baumanière garden

hotel ousteau de baumanière swimming pool

hotel ousteau de baumanière swimming pool

hotel ousteau de baumanière restaurant

 

Baux-de-Provence

baux-de-provence village

baux-de-provence village

baux-de-provence by night

 

Oppède le Vieux

A small village in the Luberon

oppède le vieux luberon

oppède le vieux luberon

oppède le vieux luberon

oppède le vieux luberon

Olive groves

This region is a kind of paradise for people (like me) that likes olive oils. A lot of small producers, so many different tastes, pure happiness!

olive grove

Les Alpilles

les alpilles

les alpilles

les alpilles

Portfolio

You can find the whole Baux-de-Provence portfolio here.

Saint Barth 2011 – Day 17

To celebrate the “first week over and back to work”, I would like to share these pictures taken from the plane just after the take off from Saint Barth. My personal mood at this time was, how to express that?, not the best moment of these fantastic holidays…

Saint Barth from the plane

Saint Barth 2011 – Day 11

We are going to Saint Barth not only for its fantastic beaches, warm weather, beautiful villas, cool shopping, but also for the real culinary experience there. We have each time a lot of fun in the different restaurants we are visiting during our stays. Sometimes a real blast as yesterday evening :-)

One of the “highlight” was our dinner at the “On the Rocks” restaurant, part of the Eden Rock hotel, one of the two Relais et Châteaux of the island. This place is very special:

Unique in the world: the hotel’s location, built on a rocky promontory thrust into the sea at St. Jean Beach and surrounded by twin crescents of sandy beach, facing a coral reef.

The stunning On The Rocks Restaurant is situated high on the rock itself, giving you un-paralleled, floodlit views of St Jean Bay while you peruse all that the tempting dinner menu has to offer.

Some pictures to concretize this experience!

Started with a Margarita and Virgin Pina Colada:

A *lot* of very tasty and fresh breads (ummhhh):

Then Oeufs pochés, purée de topinambour & lard, Emulsion aux champignons for me:

And for my wife, the Ravioli aux Portobello, Emulsion au Parmesan & Pignons de pin:

Filet de boeuf Angus, jus au raifort, pommes grenaille et mascarpone à la truffe for me:

Risotto à l’encre de seiche et aux Calamards for my wife, who has found this very very good:

Then la tartelette aux fraises avec sorbet fraise (ummhhh!):

And the Soufflé à la vanille de Madagascar et glace au chocolat for my wife (she says also: ummhhhh):

Our little boy had a very good Filet Angus with some Pene au beurre, and a Moelleux au chocolat et caramel au beurre salé, glace vanille-caramel.

So a blast for the three of us!