Auberge du Vieux Puits

You have to mean it to get out to Fontjoncouse — barely a village, deep in the Languedoc backcountry — and that's part of the appeal of Chef Gilles Goujon's Auberge du Vieux Puits. He holds three Michelin stars out here, cooking that's deeply rooted in the local market yet full of playful sleight of hand: textures, precise cooking, trompe-l'oeil plates that aren't what they look like. The dish people travel for is his "rotten" carrus hen egg — truffled, set over mushroom purée, with a warm briochine and a drinkable cappuccino alongside. Three Michelin stars, genuinely off the beaten path. Worth every kilometer of the detour.