La Verdoyante – a Mouret family terrace above the vines of Gassin

On the hillside above the village of Gassin, La Verdoyante occupies a former wine farm said to have been built around 1890, a stone bastide that looks down across the vineyards of Château Minuty to the Gulf of Saint-Tropez. The Mouret family turned the building into a restaurant in 1979, when Fernand and Mireille Mouret first opened its dining room; their son Laurent, who grew up among the vines with his brother Julien, took over the kitchen in 2004 after ten years spent training in starred houses elsewhere, and now runs it with his wife Bérénice. It matters because it has kept faith with a single idea for close to half a century: Provençal cooking served without pretence, on a terrace shaded by century-old oaks, within five kilometres of Saint-Tropez itself. It is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, without a star, a quiet acknowledgement of a kitchen that never set out to be anything other than itself.

01The room and the setting

The dining room carries "l'élégance bourgeoise et raffinée d'une bastide provençale" and from the first warm days all meals move onto "la terrasse panoramique avec vue sur le vignoble Minuty et la mer". Tables on the terrace are spaced deliberately far apart, set beneath a canopy of century-old oaks, so that the view over the vines, the sea and the surrounding hills becomes part of the meal rather than a backdrop to it. Indoors, a fireplace and a bourgeois-Provençal décor take over once the weather turns, giving the room the feel of a private house rather than a restaurant dining hall.

02The chef

Laurent Mouret was born into the business: he and his brother Julien grew up at La Verdoyante after their parents converted the family's old vineyard farmhouse into a restaurant, and both brothers went on to make cooking their trade – Julien now runs Le Grain de Sel in nearby Cogolin, while Laurent left home for a decade to train in Michelin-starred kitchens before returning to take over the family stoves in 2004. He now cooks alongside his wife Bérénice, who comes from a background in luxury hospitality and oversees the dining room.

Insider tip

Seasonal restaurant; currently closed, reopening spring 2027. Reservations by telephone only.

03The cooking

Mouret describes his approach as evolution rather than reinvention: keeping some of his father's great classics while bringing his own technique and seasonal instincts to the kitchen. He favours natural, little-worked produce paired with seasonal vegetables, aromatic herbs, citrus and mild spices, and gives particular weight to his sauces, which he sees as the element that brings each plate its depth and character. The result is Provençal cooking that changes with the calendar rather than a fixed, static carte.

04The neighbourhood

Gassin sits among the hills behind Saint-Tropez, classed among the Plus Beaux Villages de France, a short walk from the Place des Barris with its panorama over the Baie de Pampelonne and the Îles d'Or. La Verdoyante lies on the vineyard slopes just below the village itself, within easy reach of Ramatuelle, Grimaud and Sainte-Maxime, and close enough to Saint-Tropez to make the short drive worthwhile while staying well clear of the port's summer crowds.

05When to go and booking

La Verdoyante has traditionally run a seasonal calendar, closing from mid-October until Easter and operating Tuesday to Sunday the rest of the year, with lunch from 12:30pm to 1:45pm and dinner from 7:30pm to 9pm. In October 2026 the restaurant's own site states it is currently closed, with reopening set for spring 2027. From June to 8 October the restaurant is typically full several days in advance, and bookings are taken by telephone only, a habit worth remembering once the terrace reopens for the season.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.