September 20, 2026 Breakfast - at Mas des 4 Fontaines Inn. Lunch - Chateau Olive et Raisin in La Fontaine du Vaucluse.
Today was a day of unexpectedly pleasant surprises starting with the selection of cheeses served with breakfast at Mas des 4 Fontaines Inn near Gordes where we spent last night. Suzette described the Inn as, “Quiet, quaint, and perfect for a stay in the French country side. The rooms were spacious with charming French Accents.”
I tried a Corsican Beer and chestnut cheese, an aged goat cheese, and a delicious reblochan. I then tried the homemade banana and chocolate chip bread that was too dense for me for breakfast, but I loved the fresh apple juice and the hazelnut bread spread with butter and homemade plum jam topped off with a strong cup of coffee. Billy and I made ham and cheese sandwiches between the sides of a baguette spread with butter and mustard for our emergency food for the day and wrapped them in Saran for the road.
We then drove to L’ Isle de Sorgue for the Sunday market, but on the way Billy discovered a natural mystery, a waterfall streaming from the bottom of a cliff at a town named La Fontaine du Vaucluse near L’ Isle de Sorgue. Billy asked if they could take the car to La Fontaine and I decided I would rather go to see the fountain than walk around a massive market. So we dropped Suzette off at the circle where the market began and drove to La Fontaine.
Our visit to La Fontaine de Vaucluse turned out to be one of the best days of the trip. It is a charming small town on a beautiful stream fed by the Fontaine that is a spring fed by a karst at the bottom of the 315 meter high cliffs beside the stream. The water is brilliantly clear and there is sun bathed rich aquatic vegetation growing in the spring fed stream that the happiest mallards in the world feed upon.
We parked above the center and walked the 1/2 mile along an easy path to the source and then back to the town plaza dominated by a water wheel connected to the main bridge across the stream that was once used to power a paper making factory. On the way back to the plaza we decided to cancel our lunch reservation at a restaurant in L’ Isle de Sorgue and eat at a restaurant along the stream in La Fontaine. I checked the ratings and found that on the stream across the River at the bridge was a 4.9 rated restaurant named Chateau Olive et Raisin. Before we returned to pick up Suzette at 12:15, Billy made a reservation for 1:00 at a table beside the open window overlooking the plaza, bridge, water wheel and stream.
When we returned from L. Isle to La Fontaine
Soon after we returned Billy said, “I would love to return here. This wonderful, charming and not very crowded.”
We then looked at the menu and I instantly saw three dishes I wanted to try for the daily formula, or pris fixe menu, an appetizer of zebra green tomato with ham.p, duck breast for the entree, and floating islands for dessert. Billy also chose the three course formula, but with an appetizer of sautéed shrimp on a bed of zucchini, trout for the entree, and floating Island for dessert. Elaine and Suzette simply chose the trout with the understanding that we would all share the appetizers and dessert.
We asked the waitress, who spoke English. about a wine and she recommended a Luberon rose’ named Sol produced by Les Infermieries Winery that had a connection to Ridley Scott and a quote by him on the bottle.
When we googled the winery and it’s website showed that there was a cinematic Ridley Scott VIP. experience for €100 that told us he was affiliated with the winery ownership. We also discovered that Les Infermieres was closed from September 7 until deep into October that told us it was fully devoted to its wine production. It was the best rose’ we had tasted and when we asked the waitress to recommend a winery of similar quality, she recommended la Verriere Chateau. When we googled La Verrerie we discovered that it was open, about half way back to Sanaray, and we did not need a reservation, so we decided to stop there.
Then when the food was served we realized that this was a restaurant that fully deserved its 4.9 rating. Two incredibly delicious sautéed shrimp were mounted on a round bed of shredded zucchini that was so lightly cooked in a vegetable broth that it hardly lost it freshness, but the real surprise were the small Green and beige puddles of thick foam. The green was emulsified parsley and the beige was citrus. Their intensity of flavor was amazing.
The other appetizer was equally amazing, the green zebra tomatoes had been emulsified with cream and some crème fraiche or some kind of light cheese and garnished with slices of ham and a ball of Stracciatella cheese that had been foamed to an incredible softness and garnished with a sprinkle of carbonized dread crumbs and a sprig of fresh oregano. This was an incredibly delicious thick cream soup dominated by the flavors of ham, cheese, and tomato with the added textures of softness of foam and the crunch of bread. It was a dish that worked in lots of different ways.
The two waitresses spoke English and answered our questions about the ingredients. When Billy asked the older waitress what the weather was like in La Fontaine in the winter she said, “I don’t know. This restaurant closes and I return to Paris.” She said she waits tables at a restaurant in Paris in the winter.
Billy decided he wanted to return in September.
The other thing I liked about the service was that the waitresses waited for us to finish each course and then tell her when we were ready for the next course. I have not encountered this level of care and civility in many other restaurants. I felt like the dishes were being made individually for each of us when we requested, which they were.
The two entrees were not as elaborate but were equally interesting. Billy, Elaine, and Suzette ordered the trout and I ordered the duck. The trout was a rectangular filet of red trout on a bed of perfect 1/4 inch squares of potato with strips of sun dried tomato, olives, and grapes in a cumin and turmeric flavored broth, a signature treatment aligned with the name of the restaurant. How could anyone ever forget this dish.
But everyone agreed that my duck dish was better, a duck breast cut into two long rectangles seared evenly so that each piece retained an even deeply reddish-purple color throughout, yet was perfectly cooked. I saw no grey color that indicated marks of contact with the heat source.
I suspect the duck was grilled with constant flipping a couple of inches above red hot coals, like they grill asada in Argentina.
The duck filets were laid on a puddle of Demi-glacé sauce and accompanied by a grilled slice of pumpkin and a slice of grilled quince, a fall vegetable and a fall fruit, respectively, a mound of creamed turnip, and a steamed, salted baby Bok Choy.
All of us cleaned our plates with pieces of fresh baked dark roll served with the meal to taste the last drop of sauce.
Our waitress recommended a bottle of VII/El Sol produced by Les u in Luberon with a Ridley Scott connection. It was really powerful wine that went well with both the trout and the duck.
We decided on the spot to visit the winery, but found out it was closed.
Then, Suzette noticed that the winery next door was open and that it did not require a reservation and it was on the way back to Sanaray, so we decided to drive to it.
And that is how we went to Chateau La Verrirerie.
Suzette and I tasted two or three whites, a rose, and three or four reds. All of them were distinctive with both clarity and smoothness that was impressive.
We decided we loved the wines of Luberon, which is in the Rhone River Valley just upstream and east of the Côtes du Rhône.
When we returned home we rested and were not really hungry. Later in the evening I ate 1/2 of the ham and cheese sandwich I made at breakfast with a glass of rose’.
Bon Appetit
