Bohème – Lorraine beef, Peruvian ceviche, at Mougins' old gate

At the entrance to Mougins' old village, in a house that traded for years as Le Paloma, Bohème has built itself around one unglamorous idea: that a restaurant is only as good as where its meat comes from. The partnership behind it pairs Maxime Petit, a native of the region, with Alexandre Polmard, heir to a family of high-end butchers who supply some of France's best kitchens; together they turned the dining room into a showcase for whole cattle breeds, raised with care and matured over embers. In the kitchen, Peruvian chef Manuel Rondan works alongside Doryan Despaux and pastry chef Grégory Sordillon, folding South American technique and old-fashioned French offal cookery into the same card. It is Selected in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide, in the Modern Cuisine category, and rated 13/20 by Gault&Millau, which calls it a Chef's Restaurant. Behind fountains and fig trees, a short walk from where Roger Vergé once cooked, Bohème reads as Mougins' most contemporary table.

01The room and the setting

The house traded for years as Le Paloma before Maxime Petit and Alexandre Polmard took it over and handed the interior to Chloé Genter, a designer from the Meuse drawn to raw, noble materials. She rebuilt the dining room around timber - beams, panelling, furniture - so the space reads as warm and slightly nomadic, open on one side toward the Mediterranean and on the other toward the Préalpes.

In summer, service spreads into a garden of fountains and shade; in winter it retreats into a salon and an actual fumoir, a room kept aside for cigars and digestifs on quieter evenings. The terrace, people keep saying, has a spectacular view of its own.

02The people behind it

Bohème pairs Maxime Petit, a native of the region, with Alexandre Polmard, heir to a long line of cattle-breeders and butchers, to run the house. Polmard's family is six generations deep in high-end butchery, supplying some of France's finest restaurants and beyond, and that pedigree is why beef, not fish, sits at the centre of the menu: breeds are chosen with care, raised attentively and delivered straight from farm to plate.

Insider tip

Open Tuesday to Saturday, lunch and dinner; closed Sunday and Monday. Reservation recommended.

03The kitchen

Polmard first spotted Manuel Rondan's talent while the Peruvian chef was working at a resort in the Maldives, long before he took over Bohème's stoves. He doesn't cook alone: a second chef, Doryan Despaux, and pastry chef Grégory Sordillon round out a trio that pulls real weight - Rondan's tiraditos of milk-fed veal and trout ceviche sit against Despaux's pâtés en croûte, kidneys and sweetbreads, while Sordillon's tomato soufflé is the dish guests remember longest.

It is an unusual split for a village restaurant: South American technique on the raw plates, classic French offal cookery on the mains, and a pastry kitchen built on Lyonnais tradition, its chef trained in several starred houses before settling at Bohème.

04What to order

The card turns with the seasons, but a handful of dishes recur. Ceviche de Pêche Sauvage, Côte de Bœuf Polmard, Notre Soufflé, Tartelette de Saison and Notre Ratatouille remain among the most-ordered plates, alongside onglet & caviar - a Polmard beef tartare lifted with oscietre caviar and a sharp acevichado - and retour de pêche sauvage, a just-landed fish simply roasted over beetroot purée, citrus butter, crushed hazelnuts and dill oil.

Racines turns beetroot purée, glazed Jerusalem artichoke, pickled yellow beet and parsnip crisps into a root-vegetable dish with its own presence, while a long-braised canard confit, shredded over a whipped potato purée, closes the savoury side of the card. For dessert beyond the soufflé, citron menthe layers lemon crumble and cream with mint emulsion, mint ice cream and berries.

05Wine and the cellar

The list goes by the name La Belle Quille, built with winegrowers, advisers and sommeliers who share an attachment to the land behind each bottle; the stated aim is to drink well rather than to drink expensively, matched to whoever is at the table. Gault&Millau, for its part, finds a cellar deep enough to feel almost intimidating, with real range behind the obvious names.

06The neighbourhood

A few minutes' walk away stands a 16th-century mill that Roger Vergé turned into the restaurant that made his name, with a light, sun-struck cooking style he called Cuisine du Soleil. Vergé, who died at his home in Mougins in 2015, also ran a second address, L'Amandier, in the same old village; between them they set the terms for everything Mougins has cooked since.

Bohème, newer and looser, keeps the same insistence on sourcing but points it toward a different horizon - Lorraine cattle farms and Peruvian seasoning rather than strictly Provençal cuisine - on a street at the edge of the walls Vergé's generation made famous.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.