While classifying wines as Vin de France gives people like Alice flexibility and an escape from grouchy, conservative tasting panels it was such a joy to drink this bottle of 2011 Dorabella made when Octavin was still able to use Arbois on the labels. The name Domaine de l’Octavin no longer appears as well - part of the same complication which means you will only see the postal code not the name of the town on current bottles. It was still pristine and extraordinarily delicious. It had never left Arbois, travelling just a few metres in its entire life. Thanks Christophe and @chevredarbois for choosing to drink it with us. It’s a fairly special moment when you invite people to dinner and then they bring sausages made from their own goats, their cheese and this bottle! We did do some cooking, given we had a gorgeous collection of Le Doyenné vegetables!

Carmen’s cheese. Carmen the cheesemaker (she’s holding our perfect apéro for a 39° day - @jeanpierre_robinot’s Fêtembulles). Carmen’s cheese on a delicious summer dish at @restaurant_circus. If you are in Arbois it’s something essential to eat. If you see a tiny herd of goats in the outer streets of Arbois heading home to be milked then you have found its source of the cheese.

Arbois … just subtly reminding you as you arrive in town that it was granted the first (1ere) AOC ( Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée) in 1936. Actually it was the equal first wine AOC with several others. Cassis, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Cognac, Monbazillac, and Tavel were defined at the same time … Still an important reminder of the importance of Jura wines. The actual first AOC was for Roquefort cheese, not a wine, in 1925. Comté had to wait until 1958. While the wine accolades came early surely Comté should have been acknowledged much earlier?

Still in June … moments at @bistrot_des_claquets in Arbois, one of our favourite places on the planet. The calm before the lunchtime storm. The entrée buffet Christophe - cheese portioner extraordinaire (@chevredarbois cheese of course) Sharing a glass of Alice Fahrenkrug‘s wine with Alice (who took some convincing) A rare sighting of Roger on Instagram (who doesn’t yet know it’s here) Friday is frites.

June 2026. A restaurant we visit every year - for the people (including here @romainquiboit and @thepocket_rocket in the background in the second photo), the beauty, the produce, the generosity, the garden walk, the impeccable cooking and the wine. Every visit is a joy of the first order something to look forward to with great anticipation knowing there will never be a moment of disappointment. @james_edward_henry_ and @shaunbarneykelly you are geniuses! With impeccable timing (this post is from a meal in June - sharing our French trip this year is a slow project) we can use it to share that @le_doyennerestaurant_ is coming to @orson.paris on 20 September with vegetables and more. Go and support them if you can - they are teasing to make it regular! We’ll have a post about @orson.paris eventually too - our last, very gorgeous meal in France this year. But that was the end of July and we are still in June.

Setting aside the stress of knowing we couldn’t eat any of this because we were about to walk into the restaurant for lunch visiting @le_doyennerestaurant_ at the weekend and shopping for vegetables at its weekend market was absolutely one of our favourite moments of our summer in France this year. Done with the same joy, generosity and gorgeousness as every other part of this establishment the Saturday and Sunday summer markets are a brilliant addition to this grand ever-evolving project. We were heading towards the Jura and the panier of vegetables we took with us was invaluable. You don’t need to be eating at the restaurant to shop or eat here. We’ve always loved lunch at Le Doyenné and now we’re locked in to a weekend shopping trip each time we visit. Congratulations @james_edward_henry_ and @shaunbarneykelly. We’re crossing our fingers it’s repeated next summer.