Le Castellaras – a Provençal terrace above the walled village

On a hillside above Fayence, in the inland hills of the Var, Le Castellaras occupies a traditional stone mas whose terrace looks straight down across the valley to the walled medieval village below. The house is run as a family affair: Quentin Joplet cooks, while front of house is his wife Hermance, born in Saint Raphaël in July 1977, the daughter of Alain and Marie Claude Carro, creators of the Castellaras in Fayence, who passed the trade of Maître Restaurateur to their daughter some 30 years ago. The address is Selected in the MICHELIN Guide today, a reputation that once carried a MICHELIN Star: the restaurant celebrated its Michelin Star at a gastronomic garden party hosted by two starred chefs, Alain Carro and Quentin Joplet. Lunch and dinner both unfold under old trees or beside the fireplace, built around the daily market and a Provençal repertoire that turns with the seasons – the kind of cooking that persuades guests to stay the night in one of five spacious, refined guestrooms Hermance Joplet has arranged in the grounds.

01The room and the setting

The house itself is built from the pale stone typical of this stretch of hill country, perched on its slope with the Fayence hinterland as a backdrop; guests cross a wide terrace, shaded by old trees, before settling at a table that commands the view toward the village, and the journey, as the house puts it, properly begins.

Inside, the kitchen is fully open to the dining room, so Quentin works within sight of the tables rather than behind a service door. A pool, jacuzzi and solarium sit apart from the restaurant itself, and since 2012 the terrace and part of the park have been ringed with wooden BioBelt units, a chemical-free system designed to keep the summer evenings free of mosquitoes.

02The chef

Quentin Joplet's route to the Castellaras stove ran through Belgium and the Aveyron. He trained for three years under chef Ronald Stas at the restaurant Le Lispius in Overijse, then spent two more years working with Alain Carro before realising his dream and joining Michel Bras in Laguiole, where he developed a taste for cooking seasonal vegetables, herbs and flowers.

Insider tip

Reached via the D19 toward Seillans; booking advised for both table and room.

Hermance's own training took her through hotel schools in Nice and Strasbourg, and spells working alongside Michel Sarran and Michel Guérard, and at Potel et Chabot, before she came home to run service in her parents' house. Twenty years ago she also helped found Les Éléonores de Provence, a network that now brings together more than thirty winegrowers, chefs, pastry cooks, bakers and oenologists promoting Provençal produce, with a biennial gala raising funds for local causes helping women and children.

03The cooking

The carte turns with the seasons and with whatever Quentin finds at the morning market, offered across three menus. The weekday lunchtime Menu Plaisir (49€) is a single starter, main and dessert built from that day's shopping; cheese can be added before dessert for a 4€ supplement.

The Menu Gourmandise (80€) runs to four courses with a choice at each stage: crisp ravioli of confit beef cheek with mushrooms and shaved truffle, or roast gambas with wild fennel flower, Provençal coco beans, tomato and chorizo; fillet of meagre with duchess potato and a bourride jus, or confit Alpilles lamb shoulder with fried panisse. The six-course Menu Découverte (115€), served for the whole table, follows Quentin's own inspiration through two starters, fish, meat, cheese and dessert, and can be matched with a flight of five 10cl glasses of wine for 55€.

04What to order

The house's festive repertoire gives a sense of its range beyond the regular carte: foie gras ravioli poached in a shellfish jus at Easter, a whole roast Bigorre black-pork shoulder cooked over a wood fire for Mother's Day, truffled Saint-Pierre en croûte with girolles for Father's Day, and at Christmas, scallops from the Normandy coast with Sturia Origin caviar and barbecue-grilled leeks.

The constant across almost every menu is the house's own brie, stuffed with Tuber aestivum summer truffle, offered as an alternative to the cheese course's sheep's-milk ice cream. Desserts lean on Valrhona chocolate and seasonal fruit, from a vanilla-and-pear soufflé to a chestnut-and-citrus Mont Blanc at Christmas.

05When to go and booking

Overnight guests can extend the evening into one of five individually furnished guestrooms set apart in the garden for quiet, with the pool, solarium and park giving reason to linger into the next morning.

Every Thursday morning, Quentin runs a three-hour cookery class for small groups, cooking a full starter-main-dessert menu together before sitting down to share it; places are limited and bookings go through Hermance by telephone. Through the year, Les Musicales bring concerts, in a deliberately relaxed mood, to round off dinner on selected evenings. The house has carried the Qualité Tourisme label since 2013, and the kitchen can prepare vegetarian, gluten-free and children's dishes on request.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.