"Hotel Le Mas de Pierre****" - St. Paule-de-Vence, Provence, France.

Rooms:

Cuisine:

It is a great pleasure to be able to recommend unconditionally the cuisine of 28 year old Nicolas Navarrro, Executive Chef of "La Table de Pierre", restaurant of Le Mas de Pierre. While food is a very personal experience, unless you have a totally rigid palate, you will find this menu a delight, filled with the tastes of Provence, meat, fish and poultry prepared to perfection and this chef is not trembling in fear of vegetables! So manyother are and simply don't know what to do with them, using them as decoration or killing them with sauces, spices and over cooking or banning them from their recipes completely. But chef Navarro celebrates the marvelous cornucopia of the Provencal garden with highly original dishes using interesting taste combinations and preparations that make your toes curl. Ours at least!

Our taste buds were tantalized first with the requisite skinny mini-glass "amuse bouche" of chilled "Creme de Girolles (mushrooms) with a shaving of raw, black truffle poked into an emulsion capping the creme. We then moved onto the entrée (starter). Linda enjoyed the "Legumes à la mode de Saint Paul", perfumed with Gattiere flowers and another tasty slice of raw black truffle. The varied vegetables in "chunky" form were arranged on a bed of chopped tomatoes and cooked to just the right point for the dish. I had the "Tartare of Daurade Royale" (local fish) with socca (local chip pea Nicoise pancakes) used as wafers to top the 3 oval patties of Tartare. This was served on a light jelly of cucumber and marjoram with dollops of Avruga caviar. But what really made this dish was a side serving garden salad of mint, chervil, other light garden baby greens, a drizzle of olive oil and a wafer of Parmesan. A most unique and refresing salad especially with the mainly mint over tones.

Linda chose the "Filets de rouget de Roche" (delicate filets of Red Mullet) served with a "basket" of more light veggies from the garden. We noted, at this point, that it is cruel and inhuman punishment meted out by that red book guide by that tire manufacturer, that they seem to insist on finely rendered vegetables before they will award high star ratings. Perhaps this is to employ a bevy of workers in the kitchens making 1/16" cubes or hair-like juliennes that are delicious to the eye but contribute not one jot to the taste. Whereas we at GourmetVoyageurs certainly judge by eye appeal but are driven mainly by taste. So if you can actually recognize what vegetables you are eating, this, to us, enhances the meal, it does not detract. And chef Navarro does not disappoint in this. He even includes the pea pods cooked to a light crunchy tenderness.

I enjoyed the "Selle d'Agnearu de Sisteron". Lamb that has spent at least some time feasting on the wild lavender, thyme and rosemary of the hillsides around Sisteron and other places in Haute Provence has a unique flavor adding its own perfume to the meat. This was rolled with a thin strip of Colonata pork on the outside and the whole was served with baby violet artichokes sautéd, sliced in half and served "brochette" on skewers of what looked like bamboo. It was superb. All this was accompanied by the best rosé we had been served on this trip, a "Bastide de St. Jean", light and dry and an excellent accompaniment to this Provencal meal.

While Linda enjoyed her usual sorbet assortment dish, I finished the meal with a light but tasty "sorbet of bergeron" served with a tarte of creme brulée infused with jasmine topped with poached apricot slices.

Since coffee is served with a selection of chocolate goodies, these light desserts are more than enough.

Chef Navarro learned his craft first at the Crillon in Paris, then the Plaza Athenee and finally not far from Nice in Gassin, next door to St. Tropez, at another of our favorite hotel/restaurants Villa Belrose, under chef Thierry Thiercelin. We were happy to discover that while Chef Thiercelin's influence was clearly present, chef Navarro is his own person with his culinary vision, but they both share a passion for maintaining their own kitchen gardens (as does Alain Ducasse) for the freshest of fresh ingredients.

The Spa:

While the Spa is not big, it is both big enough and small enough to offer a good range of body toning and de-stress programs. It is situated right next to the pool and the exercise room with both outside (in a private cabana) and inside treatment rooms. You can even keep an eye on the kids in the pool while having all the knots worked out from keeping your eyes on the kids.

The Spa is part of a "health center" that includes the pool, gym, private terraces to enjoy beauty treatments in the out-of-doors. A muscle-tone vitality workout is organized every morning during high season…and personal training is available. In conjunction with the Bastide, relaxing Swedish and shiatsu massages are given by an osteopath by appointment. A Certified beautician can also provide any type of face and body care. The "Payot’s" beauty care offers real moments of pleasure during the massages and modelings of the face and the body. A large range of original and personalized care is offered such as massages resulting from modeling to the 42 movements and "gummings" using mineral resources of the semi-precious stones, the balsams and the marine crystals.
The Mas de Pierre Spa is dedicated not just to women but also to men. An elegant Spa with the perfume of the sun.