TOP DINING HOTSPOTS IN PROVENCE

Pollen (3 bis Rue Petite Calade; 0033 486 349374; pollenrestaurant.fr; dinner menu from €39/£34). At 28, Mathieu Desmarest has already run great kitchens. Now he’s struck out on his own, with contemporary décor in venerable premises and a no-choice menu changing daily. You get the guinea fowl, you’ll not complain.

L’Agape (21 Place des Corps Saints; 0033 490 850406; restaurantagape-avignon. com; dinner menu from €33/£29). Brightest, most inventive bistro in town.

La Mirande (4 Place de l’Amirande; 0033 490 142020; la-mirande.fr; dinner menu from €60/£52). The main restaurant in Avignon’s most beautiful hotel was shut during my visit – but young chef Florent Pietravalle is obviously doing

domain since the 1750s. They are largely on top of the job. His Cuvée Barberini had, he said, “the power and elegance” that characterised CdP. He was right (domaine-solitude.com).

Across the appellation, Margateborn Neil Joyce and a professional partner – having ditched business careers – invested a packet to bring the decrepit Celestière winery back to life (lacelestiere.fr). Starting in 2008, they’ve mastered the contemporary essentials – low yields, high alcohol, force and finesse – while being little bothered by UFOs.

Back in 1954, at the height of alien scares worldwide, CdP’s town council passed a by-law, banning UFOs from its territory. “None has been seen since,” said Neil. Thus, while he’s had something right. The place regained its Michelin star last month.

Christian Etienne (10 Rue de Mons; 0033 484 885127; christianetienne. fr; dinner menu from €85/£74). Etienne ceded his Mich-starred restaurant to Guilhem Sévin, his former support chef, in 2016. It remains Avignon’s restaurant of reference, with the best saddle of rabbit I can remember having eaten. Plus a pud laden with truffles to stun truffle lovers.

La Fourchette (17 Rue Racine; 0033 490 852093; lafourchette.net; dinner menu €38/£33). Philippe Hiély has overseen the most Provençal – and most convivial – of the top restaurants for 37 years. What with oysters in a light curry sauce and scallops with a touch of mango, I’d be grateful if he’d sign for another 37.

to tangle with drought and mildew, Neil’s problems have not included those posed by seven-fingered fellows from the planet Tharg.

By now, it was dinnertime. The Restaurant Christian Etienne is reckoned to be the best in Avignon. Top three, anyway (see panel). The dining room is older than the papal palace next door. The meal was first-rate, the young sommelier also.

The couple on the next table were eating pigeon. They wished a wine recommendation. “There are two policies with pigeon,” said the sommelier. “A wine which goes in the sense of the pigeon, or one which goes against it.” There was a real Provençal dining dichotomy. The planet and wellness be damned, for the duration.