L' Aiguebelle — Restaurant in Forcalquier

Just for the restaurant.||||A shady corner of the Aiguebelle's terrace was ideal for one of the four of us who was in a wheel-chair, and she was kindly helped to her place by the 'patronne'. Sunday lunch; Fathers' Day; election day; the tourist season has started: so the place was busy. Just two people in front of house, and service at first was slow. Madame was kindness itself but rushed off her feet. But who's in a hurry in deepest Provence, and the hottest day of the year so far?||||We all had the 23 euro menu. First a large warm St Marcellin cheese on toast dressed in honey, was accompanied by an over-large and rather confused salad which included, heaven knows why, a physalis, but also a very nice helping of 'confit d'oignon'. Then followed, for two of us, a generous helping of 'pieds-et-paquets'. This traditional working-class meal of lambs' trotters and herby stuffing wrapped round with tripe, not for the faint-hearted, is worth trying at least once. It had too many potatoes of poor quality and the wrong variety so we couldn't soak up the sauce in them. But the p-&-p were delicious. Our friends had either magret of duck, or red snapper ('rouget') which were most certainly frozen and not fresh.||||Dessert: either warm apple tart or nougat glacé. Both nice but like the salad, too confused with cream etc, - trying too hard. And just a teaspoon to chase it all round the plate tho' that's quite usual in this sort of homely restaurant in France.||||So just 3 stars but it's a lovely old town and this is a good place to eat if you...

Just for the restaurant.||||A shady corner of the Aiguebelle's terrace was ideal for one of the four of us who was in a wheel-chair, and she was kindly helped to her place by the 'patronne'. Sunday lunch; Fathers' Day; election day; the tourist season has started: so the place was busy. Just two people in front of house, and service at first was slow. Madame was kindness itself but rushed off her feet. But who's in a hurry in deepest Provence, and the hottest day of the year so far?||||We all had the 23 euro menu. First a large warm St Marcellin cheese on toast dressed in honey, was accompanied by an over-large and rather confused salad which included, heaven knows why, a physalis, but also a very nice helping of 'confit d'oignon'. Then followed, for two of us, a generous helping of 'pieds-et-paquets'. This traditional working-class meal of lambs' trotters and herby stuffing wrapped round with tripe, not for the faint-hearted, is worth trying at least once. It had too many potatoes of poor quality and the wrong variety so we couldn't soak up the sauce in them. But the p-&-p were delicious. Our friends had either magret of duck, or red snapper ('rouget') which were most certainly frozen and not fresh.||||Dessert: either warm apple tart or nougat glacé. Both nice but like the salad, too confused with cream etc, - trying too hard. And just a teaspoon to chase it all round the plate tho' that's quite usual in this sort of homely restaurant in France.||||So just 3 stars but it's a lovely old town and this is a good place to eat if you...

We luckily stumbled upon this charming hotel in Cereste last night. I was having difficulty with my bike and we needed a place for the night. I don’t believe this small village has any other hotels, and this one has been taken over by the chef who has been there for one year and he now also runs the hotel. The room was small but clean and quiet. We dined at the restaurant last night and were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food and the service. I enjoyed a goat terrine with pesto and red pepper coulis while my husband enjoyed a seasonal salad with strawberries and warm asparagus - just delicious. We both enjoyed a properly cooked beef steak as our main. |They could have a little more extensive wine list but what we had was very good !|The chef/owner was a very charming man and told us much of the history of the building and village. We would happily return to the hotel and...