Hotel Restaurant le Bon Laboureur à Chenonceaux – bizarre Michelin decision

Le Bon Laboureur, Chenonceaux

Founded back in 1786 as a coaching inn Le Bon Laboureur has long been indisputably the best hotel and restaurant in Chenonceaux, whose famous château (Chenonceau) draws visitors from all over the world. Henry James dined there and mentioned the hotel in his A Little Tour of France published in 1884. James was impressed: the cuisine was not only excellent, but the service was graceful. When we are in Touraine this is our nearest fine restaurant.

Recently we have been taken to lunching there during the week when their 32€ lunch menu is available. What a bargain it is! Nominally three courses, you get fine nibbles with your apéro followed by a mise en bouche and then your first course – choice of two dishes. Next up main course – choice of fish or 72-hour cooked shoulder of lamb. A pre-dessert precedes dessert. The bargain lunch menu concludes with a choice of mignardises. My choice is invariably the cherries steeped in kirsch. With the exception of the vegetarian option, the other menus are considerably more expensive.

We have never had a bad experience at the Bon Laboureur the food  – prepared by owner chef Antoine Jeudi – is excellent , the wine list has plenty of interesting bottles  – in early this January we enjoyed a bottle of François Pinon's 1997 Vouvray Sec – reasonably priced and delicious. Fabrice Dagaut and his team offer impeccable service in the restaurant.

Given this quality it came as a great surprise to learn that Le Bon Laboureur lost its Michelin star early this year. Certainly there was nothing from our visits – around three a year – to suggest that its étoile was threatened. From our experiences Guide Michelin's decision to strip Le Bon Laboureur of its star appears bizarre.

In any case we will continue to eat at Le Bon Laboureur. 

Bon Laboureur@Chenonceaux – another fine lunch

2014 Négrette, Le Rocher des Violettes, Xavier Weisskopf

We enjoyed another excellent lunch today at Le Bon Laboureur in Chenonceaux – again taking the 32€ menu – three course but lots of extras – making it really excellent value. To drink we had as an apéro Xavier Weisskopf's lovely 2014 Montlouis Négrette, which comes from a parcel of vines that are at least 80 years old. Négrette here is the parcel of vines not the grape variety that is found in Fronton as well as the Fiefs Vendéens. The 2014 is wonderfully clean with a touch of roundness to it. 

With the first course we opted for the stylish 2015 Menetou-Salon from Isabelle and Pierre Clément – nicely ripe, crisp citric Sauvignon Blanc. For the mains we stayed in the Central Vineyards taking the 2014 Sancerre Rouge from Domaine Vacheron, which worked well with both the fish and the lamb: delicate enough for the sea bream while having sufficient body for the lamb.       

Fricassé of cèpes 

 

Salad of white beans and rillons

Vegetable tart

2015 Menetou-Salon, Isabelle et Pierre Clément, Châtenoy

72-hour slow cooked lamb 

Sea bream

2014 Sancerre, Domaine Vacheron 

Pre-dessert mandarins on a chocolate biscuit

 

Chocolate mousse

Lunch in the footsteps of Henry James

Le Bon Laboureur – long established and easily 
the best restaurant and hotel 
in the popular village of Chenonceaux 

On our last Monday at the end of our recent stay in the Loire we spoiled ourselves by lunching at Le Bon Laboureur in Chenonceaux. Here we were following in the footsteps of the writer Henry James, who was born in America but who spent much of the latter part of his life in Europe. In his Little Tour in France James describes a very comfortable and congenial meal, in his case dinner, he and his companions enjoyed at Le Bon Laboureur:

A Little Tour in France by Henry James
(originally published as a serial in 1883-1884)

Chapter 7

Chenonceaux

Here are two extracts that feature Le Bon Laboureur as it was towards the end of the 19th Century

Extract 1:
'In going from Tours you leave the valley of the Loire and enter that of the Cher, and at the end of about an hour you see the turrets of the castle on your right, among the trees, down in the meadows, beside the quiet little river. The station and the village are about ten minutes’ walk from the château, and the village contains a very tidy inn, where, if you are not in too great a hurry to commune with the shades of the royal favourite and the jealous queen, you will perhaps stop and order a dinner to be ready for you in the evening.'

In between this extract and the one below Henry James describes his visit the Château de Chenonceaux. He spells both the village and the château ending in an x. Today the château is written without an x. Although one might be inclined to think that James made an error in adding an x to the château this may not be the case as some of the pictures showing the château in the past use an x in the spelling.

Wikipedia, as opposed to Wikileaks, suggests that it was Louise Dupin de Francueil, the château's owner during the French Revolution, who dropped the x in order to show that the château was royal. Apparently there are no official papers to confirm this story. However, James was writing years after the Revolution.

Anyway it strikes me as rather strange that in revolutionary times you would want to stress a building's royal pedigree. Instead it seems to me much more logical and more prudent not to draw attention to your splendid château spanning the Cher in case marauding revolutionaries either set up camp there or razed the building to the ground. Anyway what do I know for Chenonceau, however it was spelled, survived the Revolution unscathed. 

 

The church in neighbouring Francueil

Extract 2:
'Venice a year and a half before. We took our way back to the Bon Laboureur, and waited in the little inn-parlour for a late train to Tours. We were not impatient, for we had an excellent dinner to occupy us; and even after we had dined we were still content to sit awhile and exchange remarks upon the superior civilisation of France. Where else, at a village inn, should we have fared so well? Where else should we have sat down to our refreshment without condescension? There were a couple of countries in which it would not have been happy for us to arrive hungry, on a Sunday evening, at so modest an hostelry. At the little inn at Chenonceaux the cuisine was not only excellent, but the service was graceful. We were waited on by mademoiselle and her mamma; it was so that mademoiselle alluded to the elder lady as she uncorked for us a bottle of Vouvray mousseux. We were very comfortable, very genial; we even went so far as to say to each other that Vouvray mousseux was a delightful wine. From this opinion indeed one of our trio differed; but this member of the party had already exposed herself to the charge of being too fastidious by declining to descend from the carriage at Chaumont and take that back-stairs view of the castle.'

•••

Back in February we three were certainly 'very comfortable', 'very genial' and 'the cuisine was not only excellent, but the service (led by Fabrice and his team) was graceful'. I'm not sure that James' 'so modest an hostelry' is still apt. The 21st century Le Bon Laboureur is very comfortable with an airy and light dining room. There was a time was it was a little dark and gloomy but that has long gone. It is true, however, the building is modest in comparison to Touraine's grand châteaux hotels like Artigny and La Rochecotte  but Le Laboureur has a Michelin star and they don't.

We chose the Menu du Marché, which is available only at lunchtime and not on Sunday. At 32€ for three fine listed courses it is excellent value, especially by the time you add in all the extra treats – canapés, mise en bouche, pre-dessert et mignardises – it is more like eight or nine courses!

   Excellent 2010 100% Côt (outside Touraine sometimes called Malbec)
from Domaine de la Chapinière, AC Touraine

First courses:

Tartine de légumes, magret fumé, faisselle de chèvre

Velouté de lentilles, champignons & lardons

Main course:

Epaule d'agneau confite 72 heures, jus d'agneau et crème d'ail

Desserts:

Praliné-chocolat, crème Amaretto

Gratin aux agrumes & ananas, sorbet orange sanguine

Impeccable Sunday dinner@Le Bon Laboureur, Chenonceaux

 2013 Les Cabotines, Montlouis, Ludovic Chanson 

Last Sunday (14th June) we had a Sunday dinner at Le Bon Laboureur in Chenonceaux, which is always consistently good and the service is invariably very professional. We kicked off with Ludovic Chanson's fine 2013 Les Cabotines, Montouis. This sec both confirms that Ludovic continues to make fine wine but also underlines the strength in Montlouis, even though the appellation is quite small. We followed this with the 2009 Philippe Alliet L'Huisserie. It is a while since I have drunk one of Philippe's Chinons and this was very impressive.      

 Langoustines 

 

 A velouté of asparagus with an oeuf mollet

Tartare of dorade et gambas marinées – very good  

 Green and white asparagus with two different sauces

 Pigeon (above and below)

 Conjugaison de ris et tête de veau au présent et au passé,  

jus de veau et sauce gribiche

 Saddle of lamb with a herb crust

 2009 l'Huisserie, Chinon, Philippe Alliet

Lovely rich concentration, soft tannins – impressive   

 pre-dessert

 

 The spectacular omelette norvégienne    

with fraise & vanille icecream 

flamed with eau de vie de framboise

 

le coup de grâce – cherries in kirsch

Le Bon Laboureur (Chenonceaux): un vrai régal !

Last week we had an excellent and very enjoyable dinner at Le Bon Laboureur in Chenonceaux. This is a long-established hotel restaurant. It was mentioned by Henry James in His Little Tour in France, first published as a book in 1884 but serialised in The Atlantic Monthly in 1883-84. 

I chose the Menu Decouverte (48€) – the only menu on that night, while CRM and our friend, Anita, went à la carte. 

 

2013 La Négrette, AC Montlouis, Le Rocher des Violettes,  

Xavier Weisskopf

Xavier Weisskopf

We kicked off with the 2013 La Négrette, Montlouis, from Xavier Weisskopf. Its attractive mid-weight and purity impressed CRM and Anita, neither of whom had ever tasted Xavier's wines before. The Montlouis was accompanied by some delicious nibbles and an oyster each. Then, just before the first course and to ensure that our palates were properly attuned, there was an amuse bouche.    

CRM and Anita's first course: langoustine juste saisie

Note that the langoustine are carefully 

arranged in descending size.
Well matched with 2013 La Négrette

My very tasty fish soup with a piece of lobster 
Consommé de crevettes grises et homard
(crevettes, pétoncles, lotte et champignons)

2005 Alcofribas Bourgueil, Domaine de la Chevalerie 

(Pierre, Stéphane and Emmanuel Caslot)

The 2005 Alcofribas Bourgueil was an unexpected delight. Unexpected as I had ordered the 2006 Chevalerie. However, as that was now out of stock, Fabrice, the maître d', offered us either the 2008 Chevalerie or 2005 Alcofribas Bourgueil. Pas photo! It had to be the 2005, which proved to be voluptuously excellent. Sadly it was Le Laboureur's last bottle. Alcofribas is the first part of François Rabelais' pseudonym Alcofribas Nasier – an anagram of the author's name. To date 2005 is only vintage in which the Caslots have made this cuvée, so we were privleged indeed!   

Pierre Caslot who died in October 2014

Photo taken June 2014

Main course: my skate dish

Conjugaison de ris et tête de veau 

– the most spectacular of our main courses

Selle d'agneau en croute d'herbes 

Table decoration with the Alcofribas 

Omelette Norvegienne a spectacular end to Anita's meal 

CRM: dacquoise praliné, glace "Guanaja"

My Gratin d'ananas et orange, sorbet pomelo

2012 Pointe de Doux Brochet Sauvignon Blanc (Ampelidae)

Frédéric Brochet

For our desserts Fabrice kindly offered us a glass of Frédéric Brochet's delicately sweet 2012 Pointe de Doux Brochet Sauvignon Blanc. While it was a counterpoint to our desserts, I'm not convinced that it was a fully successful match. 

The food at the Bon Laboureur is consistently excellent and as sterling is stronger for the moment against the euro eating and drinking there is now more affordable and a vrai régal !