L'Ormoie

The road grows narrower and narrower, winding its way through the rolling hills of the Perche, lined with perfectly spruced-up longhouses built of honey-coloured stone, until it seems to come to a dead end. There’s an improvised car park in a field, a barely marked path, and a house that still looks slightly crooked—but step through the door and it reveals itself to be wonderfully light-filled, with putty-coloured walls and floors, natural wood tables, bistro chairs and bouquets of flowers gathered from the roadside verges… Christy Erickson hasn’t chosen the easy option, but make no mistake: she has thought her project through very carefully. This restaurant, which opened in June 2026, is ambitious, makes no secret of it, and has given itself every chance of succeeding. The chef? Junha Lee, a South Korean chef and gardener, who honed his skills with, among others, Alexandre Gauthier at La Grenouillère and Alain Passard at L’Arpège, and whose cooking favours restraint over showmanship. The wine list? That’s very much her thing: Christy, who has worked in the wine trade and at wine auctions, has already put together an impressively extensive selection, with a particular focus on natural wines and a definite soft spot for Burgundy. And the goal? To expand the kitchen garden, perhaps create some guest rooms, maybe even open a grocery shop—there’s certainly plenty of space… Proof, if any were needed, that the Perche can still surprise as much as it delights.