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The world’s most glamorous diners expect splendour, and get it amid wood-panelling, gilt mirrors and glistening chandeliers. Splendour on the plates, too, where France’s leading chef, Alain Ducasse, works Provençale cuisine into a sensual art form. If you have to think about the expense, you’re in the wrong place.

The terrace overlooks the stream rushing through the village; in the dining room, antique Moustiers crockery competes for space with 19th-century paintings. Outside or in, the food refines the best of Provençale cooking. Dishes include fresh pasta with foie gras and truffles or lamb from Sisteron with herbs (see Les Santons, Moustiers-Ste-Marie).

Within the palatial Negresco hotel (see Le Negresco, Nice), Le Chantecler boasts Regency decor and wood-panelling. The taste is exquisite, as is young chef Alain Llorca’s imaginative food, such as green bean salad with light cream, topped with caviar and warm foie gras with mango sorbet (see Le Chantecler).

Young chef Edouard Loubet already has a huge reputation for Provençale cooking of great finesse. The surroundings are equally fine, opposite Lourmarin chateau (see Le Moulin de Lourmarin, Lourmarin).

La Colombe welcomed Picasso, Matisse and Braque, among others, who left works instead of payment, so a priceless collection hangs in the restaurant. The place continues to attract celebrities with first-rate Provençale cuisine (see La Colombe d’Or, St-Paul-de-Vence).

Noted for its skilful use of flavours. Red mullet roasted with smoked bacon is one of the simpler dishes eaten in the dining room or, in summer, in the shaded garden (see Le Clos de la Violette, Aix-en-Provence).

La Mirande was a cardinal’s mansion during the popes’ time in Avignon. Subsequently it became a sober 18th-century town house, renovated in the 1980s. The restaurant offers fresh, inventive cooking of the highest class (see La Mirande, Avignon).

The restaurant of the Hotel Martinez affords magnificent views of the Cannes promenade. This is where the film-making classes go for the best food in town, including Provençale specialities like lambs’ feet croquettes with artichoke (see La Palme d’Or, Hôtel Martinez, Cannes).

The restored 18th-century country house is superbly sited amid lavender and olive trees above Grasse. Equally splendid is the cooking of chef Jacques Chibois (see Bastide St-Antoine, Grasse).

The converted farmstead dates from the 14th century; the food mixes the rusticity of fresh vegetables and other local produce with top-class cuisine.