Anse de Corton · Cassis
A three-Michelin-star restaurant on a cliff above the Anse de Corton in Cassis — Marielle and Dimitri Droisneau in the kitchen since 2011, the dining room turned to the sea, the…
The verdict
A restaurant on a Cassis cliff, opened in 2011 by Marielle and Dimitri Droisneau and held by them ever since — second star in 2014, third in 2022. The terrace runs along the Anse de Corton; the kitchen reads Provence in low gear. One of the great Mediterranean tables.
From the editors · Vedere House
The particulars
La Villa Madie sits on a cliff above the Anse de Corton, a small rocky inlet on the Cassis side of the Calanques, with the dining room turned to the sea and the kitchen turned to the day's catch. Marielle and Dimitri Droisneau opened it in 2011 — Marielle from the Aveyron and Bras, Guérard, Veyrat, Berasategui; Dimitri from Normandy by way of Bristol, Lucas Carton, Tour d'Argent and Bernard Pacaud at L'Ambroisie — and they have run it together since, as a single room and a single hand. The first Michelin star came in 2009 under the previous tenancy; the second arrived in 2014, the third in 2022.
“A dining room turned to the sea, a kitchen turned to the producer at the door — and the cliff doing the rest.
”
The cuisine reads as terre et mer in the strict sense — Cassis sea bass and red mullet, the Mediterranean salinity, a constant pull of foraged herbs from the Calanques side, the Provençal vegetable when the vegetable is ready. The room itself is the work of two architects and a quiet hand: sculpted oak columns frame the view, a wall sculpture of stylised fish catches the late light, the tablecloths are white linen and the dishes are the chef's own porcelain, made to look like the shells the kitchen opens by the kilo.
The pace is the room's pace. Lunch service from one o'clock runs through to four. The cliff terrace opens when the wind allows, which is most of the season. The wine list reads Provence and Cassis AOC first, with the long Burgundies and Rhônes for the table that wants them. La Brasserie du Corton, on the upper level, is the lighter, cheaper afternoon — the kitchen hand kept the same, the windowed room turned the same way to the sea.
Signature moments
01
Two chairs, a white-clothed round table, the railing and the bay. Umbrella pines do most of the shading; the red-grey cliffs of Cap Canaille run the length of the horizon. Lunch service runs from one o'clock and most of the room is on the terrace by the second course.
02
A blue apron embroidered *Dimitri Droisneau*, the working surface behind a stainless-steel pass, the chef looking off-frame at a service that already knows what it is doing. The kitchen has held a star since 2009, two since 2014, three since 2022.
03
A plate of grilled sardines on caviar set on a green fishing net, the cork weights laid around it like bezeled stones. The framing is the kitchen's own — a constant return to the sea fifty metres below, a constant nod to the producers Marielle and Dimitri have spent fifteen years collecting along the coast.
Inside the house
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