Telephone: 00 33 4 90 68 06 69
Address: 84160 Lourmarin, France
Rating: 18.5/20

Ten-year-old Pierre looked downcast on being informed that he would have to make do with his father's birthday cake in place of the chocolate fondant on which he had set his heart. He was not consoled by the mountain of airy sponge and cream with fireworks spouting from its summit that arrived at our table. And then, as if by magic, a smiling waitress appeared with the pudding of desire. We had neither asked for it nor mentioned it. She, or a colleague, had overhead Pierre's concern, and acted on their own initiative. Now, that is what I call service.

There had been rough edges about the bringing of dishes to the table and putting them in front of the right people, but all was redeemed in that one, thoughtful act. They know how to treat children in France, even in restaurants with two Michelin stars.

But it wasn't just Pierre's treatment that made Le Moulin de Lourmarin an outstanding place to refuel. It is the atelier of Édouard Loubet, a coming man in French culinary circles. He is a man of Lourmarin, a beautiful Provençal village, who cut his teeth on haute cuisine in the kitchens of that six-star marvel, Marc Veyrat of Annecy and Megève. And there is something of the Veyrat legacy about his cooking. He, too, scours the countryside for the herbs, berries, roots and green things of his forefathers (or, more probably, his foremothers), and generally re-nouvelles la cuisine de son terroir with the products of the terroir.

All of which is by way of introduction to one very sunny Friday lunch that found the family Fort (wife, daughter and doting husband/father) and the family Deliso (sister of doting husband/father, her doting husband/ father of daughter and son) stealing into the handsome, air-conditioned comfort of Le Moulin, and surveying two set-price menus - Senteur de Provence at €92 (£65) and Une Image de Lourmarin at €152 (£107) - and the à la carte, on which dishes started at £25 and topped off at £53 (there was one absurdity at £210, but it contained loads of caviar).

We worked our way through a fair proportion of Loubet's repertoire, but had to pass on certain delights that I'd have liked to get my teeth into, such as saladine de homard breton mijotée à la sarriette and omoplate pochée et dos de lapin roti à l'achille millefeuille (if only to find out what omoplate was). But we did justice to coeur de tournesol et girolles et vinaigrette douce; dourade royale grillé à la menthe exotique et feuille de melisse; not to mention carré d'agneau cuit en cocotte et fumé au serpolet des "Claparedes", with its accompanying gratin de ma grandmère, which made the children coo with pleasure (and the grown-ups, too, come to that).

I have given the shortlist of what we ate - I could fill up the entire review with the dizzying sequence of dishes brought to our table. This seems par for the course among starry restaurants these days. Indeed, you hardly have to order main courses at all: simply eat the amuse bouches, inter-course offerings and extra puds.

I should say that this is not food for those whose love of French cooking is based on classic haute cuisine, on foie gras, lobster, beef fillet and buttery sauces. True, those feature, but the foie gras is teamed with confiture de tomate verte and ratafia de pin sylvestre. The cooking is characterised by a lightness and freshness. The use of herbs in huge quantities results in an aromatic intensity that amounts almost to a medicinal bitterness. This astringency is heightened further by vinegars, extracts, infusions and citrus fruits. It's an approach that puts familiar and less familiar ingredients in an unexpected light. Not all these transformations were equally successful but, overall, the dishes were interesting, provocative and delicious. Some were utterly wonderful, with a remarkable purity of flavour.

The bill for the seven of us was €763, or a bit over £535. The sommelier directed us towards impeccable local wines at about £28 each.

We no longer look at what the French get up to in their kitchens with the same awe that we once did. Indeed, it's fashionable to dismiss them as practitioners of some absurd, arcane theosophy, the cost of which has become so high as to exclude all but the rich. Le Moulin shows that we still have a lot to learn.

· Open Lunch, 12 noon-3pm, all week; dinner, 7-9pm (not Tues and Weds). All major credit cards. No wheelchair access.