We were lucky to be in the Perche in June during (from memory) the second week of @lormoie_perche’s life. This bowl of lettuce is deliberately the first photo because it came from their own garden and represents so much of what this lovely project is about. It was delivered to the table with the special joy that surely can only come from having grown, picked and dressed it yourself. It’s a giant project to serve anything you’ve grown while doing all the other things that building and then running a restaurant involves so the team had every reason to be proud. We loved everything about l’ormoie - its honesty, energy, wine list, and delicious dishes - and can’t wait to come back to see how the garden evolves and makes its way into the dining room as each season unfolds.

Still in the Perche (in June) where we stumbled on this vegetable stall in Rémalard-en-Perche) just before lunch and just before it closed, while looking for somewhere to buy toilet paper of all things! Some of the best vegetables we bought in 6 weeks of travel, including a cucumber that redefined what cucumbers can be, with a completely mesmerising silky texture. Afterwards we found the sign to the farm, just a few minutes from d’Une Ile. It’s open on Saturday mornings - a memo made for a future visit.

So many delicious places to eat in the Perche. This is a tiny wine bar @silocafecave with a serious cave at the back (a strong magnum shelf), delicious snacks, good things by the glass (this was a Sylvain Martinez pet- nat), and generous amounts of butter.

An early summer lunch at @auxsaintsjus in Normandy before we visited Julien Fremont. It’s one of the few places with magnums of his Calvados so we felt we were going to be in good hands. This chilled zucchini soup was one of the most compelling of the trip and there were many chilled soups. This was the first of many wonderful terrines too. (We bought a jar of these excellent house-made cornichons and they (diminishingly) subsequently travelled over 6,000 kilometres with us. Dessert was something of a homage to l’Ami Jean, although a more practical size. We drank Julien’s Silex which was a perfect colour match to Sue’s new phone. And we also took away a gift from @pablo.auxsaintsjus, this wonderful, rich, highly-reduced local apple cider vinegar. It became an essential part of our travelling pantry. A great summer lunch.

Julien Fremont walking us through the equipment he uses to pulp and then press the apples and pears for his cider. We’ve seen this before but every visit still remain in awe of its simplicity, practicality and in parts of it, its age. The press, constructed in 1920, was purchased by Julien’s father. The property had been in the family for centuries.