June 2026. A restaurant we visit every year - for the people (including here @romainquiboit and @thepocket_rocket in the background in the second photo), the beauty, the produce, the generosity, the garden walk, the impeccable cooking and the wine. Every visit is a joy of the first order something to look forward to with great anticipation knowing there will never be a moment of disappointment. @james_edward_henry_ and @shaunbarneykelly you are geniuses! With impeccable timing (this post is from a meal in June - sharing our French trip this year is a slow project) we can use it to share that @le_doyennerestaurant_ is coming to @orson.paris on 20 September with vegetables and more. Go and support them if you can - they are teasing to make it regular! We’ll have a post about @orson.paris eventually too - our last, very gorgeous meal in France this year. But that was the end of July and we are still in June.

Setting aside the stress of knowing we couldn’t eat any of this because we were about to walk into the restaurant for lunch visiting @le_doyennerestaurant_ at the weekend and shopping for vegetables at its weekend market was absolutely one of our favourite moments of our summer in France this year. Done with the same joy, generosity and gorgeousness as every other part of this establishment the Saturday and Sunday summer markets are a brilliant addition to this grand ever-evolving project. We were heading towards the Jura and the panier of vegetables we took with us was invaluable. You don’t need to be eating at the restaurant to shop or eat here. We’ve always loved lunch at Le Doyenné and now we’re locked in to a weekend shopping trip each time we visit. Congratulations @james_edward_henry_ and @shaunbarneykelly. We’re crossing our fingers it’s repeated next summer.

We love this first photo of Jean-Pierre and Noëlla Robinot - a reminder of what a formidable and glorious team they make. An afternoon with them is full of joy, surprises (the 2002 Vouvray as fresh as a daisy), always some new knowledge, delightful people and also always the most delicious food and wine.

One last meal in the Perche. A wonderful discovery this year that it’s possible to reserve for a meal at d’une île even if you are not a guest. If you’re staying nearby this is a wonderful option. No guarantees (no doubt house guests have priority) but our reservation came through quickly. Another facet of Bertrand Grébaut’s incredible legacy.

We were lucky to be in the Perche in June during (from memory) the second week of @lormoie_perche’s life. This bowl of lettuce is deliberately the first photo because it came from their own garden and represents so much of what this lovely project is about. It was delivered to the table with the special joy that surely can only come from having grown, picked and dressed it yourself. It’s a giant project to serve anything you’ve grown while doing all the other things that building and then running a restaurant involves so the team had every reason to be proud. We loved everything about l’ormoie - its honesty, energy, wine list, and delicious dishes - and can’t wait to come back to see how the garden evolves and makes its way into the dining room as each season unfolds.

Still in the Perche (in June) where we stumbled on this vegetable stall in Rémalard-en-Perche) just before lunch and just before it closed, while looking for somewhere to buy toilet paper of all things! Some of the best vegetables we bought in 6 weeks of travel, including a cucumber that redefined what cucumbers can be, with a completely mesmerising silky texture. Afterwards we found the sign to the farm, just a few minutes from d’Une Ile. It’s open on Saturday mornings - a memo made for a future visit.

So many delicious places to eat in the Perche. This is a tiny wine bar @silocafecave with a serious cave at the back (a strong magnum shelf), delicious snacks, good things by the glass (this was a Sylvain Martinez pet- nat), and generous amounts of butter.

An early summer lunch at @auxsaintsjus in Normandy before we visited Julien Fremont. It’s one of the few places with magnums of his Calvados so we felt we were going to be in good hands. This chilled zucchini soup was one of the most compelling of the trip and there were many chilled soups. This was the first of many wonderful terrines too. (We bought a jar of these excellent house-made cornichons and they (diminishingly) subsequently travelled over 6,000 kilometres with us. Dessert was something of a homage to l’Ami Jean, although a more practical size. We drank Julien’s Silex which was a perfect colour match to Sue’s new phone. And we also took away a gift from @pablo.auxsaintsjus, this wonderful, rich, highly-reduced local apple cider vinegar. It became an essential part of our travelling pantry. A great summer lunch.