A weekend in Lozère

Paysage Lozère

We are spending the weekend at the Hostellerie du Villard near Le Malzieu. Lozère is France’s least populated départment, so we are expecting a quiet weekend amongst beautiful countryside.

Another of Lozère’s claim to fame is that it used to be the political base of Jakker Blanc, once the right wing president of the Languedoc-Roussillon. Jakker Blanc was frequently at major wine events as guest of honour. He had the great political gift of making lengthy off-the-cuff speeches full of rolling phrases and minimal content. One of my few triumphs as a wine writer was to win the journalists’ sweepstake at one of the early editions of Vinisud on how long Jakker’s speech would last. My triumph of guessing right – 30 minutes if I recall correctly ­– was short lived as Jakker was rarely content with just one speech. Shortly after he sat down Jakker rose to his feet again for another peroration.

Anyway I digress, so back to a more peaceful Lozère. The Hostellerie du Villard is run by Jacqueline and Alain. It is in a large converted grange (barn) They opened seven years ago having previously run hotels in the Paris region. Alain looks after the kitchen, while Jacqueline is front of house.

We had a enjoyable meal last night. Our mise en bouche was a little skewer of prawn, jambon cru wrapped around segments of orange with a sprinkling of piment d’Espelette. Then I had the home made terrine accompanied by some very flavoursome tomatoes and slices of black radish, while CRM had the salad verdoyante. Main courses were la piece de boeuf du pays (Aubrac) and le paletut de caille aux miel. We finished with a fruit salad clafouti.

After a glass of Languedoc rosé as an apéro we drank a bottle of 2005 Domaine Piquemal, Les Terres Grillées, Côtes du Roussillon Villages.

The one slight problem of being in the relatively remote countryside is the lack of an internet connection, so postings are likely to be a bit sparse this weekend.

A bientôt!