Le Bas Alpin – Forcalquier

Forcalquier is a moderate sized town (population 5,212) in the départment of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence which extends from the western end of the Luberon to the Italian border. Forcalquier sits at the eastern end of this départment.

We had driven here from Saint-Saturnin-lès-Apt where we had enjoyed revisting the wonderful Saint Hubert hotel for another excellent evening meal. Our destination for the day was to be a restaurant high in the mountains to the west of the city of Grenoble, so we were looking forward to a break from driving and for a sustaining lunch.

We had been here before in search of the famous Henri Bardouin Pastis which we think is one of the best among many in the south of France. We found it at the makers premises – Distilleries et domaines de Provence. They make many alcoholic drinks here but we think that their Pastis is a stand-out.

Now back to our lunch at Le Bas Alpin. Our target that we had heard very good things about was a restaurant called Le Bas Alpin where Marcus de Vere had decamped after working at a favourite restaurant in London, namely P Franco.

We arrived promptly at 12:00 as is the practice in France and secured an outside table which was bathed in sunshine.

Due to the drive ahead we were wary about drinking too much wine, but we were tempted by a glass of Andrea Calek’s biodynamic A Toi Nous. Andrea has been a key feature of the natural wine movement for many years sitting at the more natural end of the spectrum. This wine, made from Grenache and Syrah, was very light and very energetic and was perfect for sipping gently in the sunlight.

We studied the Le Bas Alpin menu while sipping our wine and ordered three savoury dishes and one dessert as described below.

We started with a beautiful salad of sliced courgettes served with basil, brousse, olives and chapelure (which is a fancy French term for breadcrumbs). This was a very, very tasty dish with each component adding to the flavour and texture of the dish. This is the type of dish that really demonstrates just how good vegetables dishes can be.

In the above photo you can see quite clearly the breadcrumbs (chapelure) on top of the dish and the white brousse cheese at the back along with the olives. The brousse cheese is quite strong but very, very tasty. We have also had a similar cheese in Corsica called brócciu which is also very tasty.

Another Le Bas Alpin dish that was an excellent case of where the sum exceeds each of the parts was Fasolakia, a Greek dish of green beans and other vegetables braised in tomatoes and served with feta cheese and origano from Thassos. This was a delicious salad that shows that the right combination of vegetables, herbs and cheeses can produce an inspiring dish.

While we were eating these dishes the Le Bas Alpin chef brought out a slice of the potato tortilla which was also cooked perfectly.

And then we had to decide whether we would like to try the dessert! We had been totally seduced by the savoury courses so we asked for one serve of the dessert, which was an olive oil cake served with poached apricots, raw cream and almonds. It looked comforting and tasted delicious.

The meal certainly persuaded us that we should swing by here every time we visit France.

For further information check their Instagram site here.