If you want a gastronomic (and expensive) dinner, there is one luxury address in Gordes, the Bastide de Gordes hotel. Confusingly it has 3 restaurants, the best of these is called Peir / Pierre Gagnaire TT (more confusion). Perhaps it is enough to say that the executive chef Pierre Gagnaire has 3 Michelin stars in other restaurants and in 2015 was voted best chef in the world by his peers. The Bastide de Gordes has a wonderful big terrace with view to the west.

A delightful contemporary bistro with Mediterranean home-style cuisine that does not give you the feeling that you are a tourist. It’s small with outside tables right in the main square of Gordes by the chateau, and you should book ahead. Strong on meat – the lamb and the duck with chanterelles especially. Dinner menu for 37 euros.

This used to be Club Tartares, and it still does a tartare menu, with all sorts of varieties on the classic steak tartare, even fish tartares and a vegetarian tartare. Now the restaurant has also added tapas, so it is no longer a one-trick pony. It’s a ‘cool’ place by Gordes standards, with something of the vibe of a beach restaurant, and it is one place where you can turn up for dinner late and still be served.

It’s cosy, inexpensive, friendly, and usually full because it’s the place where the locals eat. There can be no higher praise than that. Food ranges from tapas, charcuterie and salads to steak and chicken curry. La Trinquette has a lovely terrace but it also has one of the best-placed tables in Provence, squeezed onto a tiny balcony up high with magnificent views to the west. Two courses at lunch for 17 euros.

Not a restaurant, just a bar, but a Gordes institution. Le Cercle Republicain is the locals’ bar, an island of authenticity where workers prop up the bar and discuss their day. Once there were thousands of these Cercles Republicains all over France, their purpose to uphold the principles of the French Republic. Now there are just a handful. It’s somewhere you pay normal prices, but you still get the million-dollar view over the valley, especially from the little balcony suspended high over the world.