Chateau Les Crayeres 2*, Reims

Michel Bras 3*, Laguiole, France overnight, dinner & breakfast

Thank you for your comments Jeremy and here is the first part of a report covering our 10 ‘foodie’ days in France in July/August at 3 of our favourite hotel restaurants which preceded our September trip to France and Spain which included Michel Bras on the return journey. We also took our regular opportunity to taste at and buy from a number of our favourite producers.
We began with one night in Reims at Les Crayeres followed by a night in Joigny at Cote St. Jacques before going on to Onzain between Blois and Tours to the Domaine des Hauts de Loire for 8 days.

The trip, using my car through the channel tunnel, began with a horrendous 3 hour and 40 minute [usually 1 hour and 25 minutes] crawl due to Operation Stack on the M20 motorway due to the disruptions caused by strikes and the migrant crisis in Calais but ended without any significant delays coming back.
The 3 hotel restaurants are all Michelin 2* and have been firm favourites for many years.
Not that it would have made any difference to our plans but I hadn’t been aware that Cote St. Jacques had lost one of their 3* but we certainly didn’t sense the slightest decline in standards there.

All are Relais & Chateaux establishments and for any that use this chain frequently I thoroughly recommend joining their Club 5C which brings with it some very useful perks: routine upgrades where rooms are available and a nice welcome with free wine and fruit or other goodies.

I have posted photos of a selection of some of the dishes we had .

The charismatic 3* chef Gerard Boyer and his wife Elyane made Les Crayeres a major ‘destination’ back in the days when it was called Boyer Les Crayeres but after his sadly early retirement in 2002, partly as a result of the suicide of his 3* chef friend Bernard Loiseau, and the subsequent departure in 2004 of his very talented Chef de Cuisine, Thierry Voisin, for the Imperial Hotel Tokyo it gradually declined finally losing all its stars.
I am glad to say that over the past few years, with a new general Manager and a re-energised though much smaller staff, Chef Philippe Mille [previously Yannick Aleno’s second at Le Meurice] and his brigade have won back 2*.

All photos were taken without flash to avoid disturbing others so quality may be rather lacking but I think they convey the appearance of each dish adequately.

While en route to Joigny we stopped in Chablis to taste and buy from William Fevre and Nathalie & Gilles Fevre. It was our first visit to the latter [pre-arranged by email] and the charming Nathalie conducted a tasting of their excellent wines before kindly showing us around their new, state-of-the-art winery. We left with a selection of their 1er Crus: Vaulorent, Fourchaume and their GC Les Preuses.

We were also fortunate at the William Fevre retail outlet in rue Rathier finding it unusually empty which allowed an uninterrupted tasting and purchase of their basic Domaine wine as well as two of their 1ers: Montmains and Vaulorent.

While in the Loire we visited and bought red, rose and white [mainly] from some of our favourite producers in Sancerre :
Henri Bourgeois, Gerard Boulay, Thomas Labaille, all 3 in Chavignol which is undergoing a major road reconstruction, Lucien Crochet in Bue and Andre Dezat in Verdigny.
Menetou-Salon: Bertrand Minchin of La Tour St. Martin outside Crosses
Montlouis: Jacky Blot in Husseau, Francois Chidaine at La Cave Insolite, Montlouis
Chinon: Bernard Baudry at Cravant les Coteaux and Charles Joguet at Sazilly.

As usual, despite failing to get to a number of other producers we usually see in all 3 places and despite Susan’s stern admonishments I, yet again, bought too much and had to leave a third of our purchases behind in the cellars at the Domaine des Hauts de Loire but collected them when we returned in September in the trip that featured Michel Bras as posted earlier.
Plenty of lovely wines but we did find that 2013, particularly the Sauvignon Blanc wines in the Loire [Sancerre and Menetou-Salon in particular] too lean and spiky. Fortunately there were 2014s and earlier vintages to choose from.

Chateau Les Crayeres, Reims
The Club 5C booking brought with it the usual benefits but perhaps our long history of staying at this very attractive hotel/restaurant had something to do with our welcome. An excellent Brasserie in a separate building in the garden was added some years ago which seems to be very well booked for both lunch and dinner but we dined as usual in the first room of the original 3 room restaurant, now called Le Parc, at the core of the main building. They are attractive rooms with very good food and wine [a huge, great-value Champagne list in particular] served with care and attention. Philippe Jamesse is splendidly helpful Master Sommelier and his specially designed wine glasses are also a delight to use.
While the Brasserie is an undoubted success I have a suspicion that the success has been somewhat at the expense of the of the main restaurant where the ambiance [IMO only of course and based today on far fewer visits] no longer appears to have the considerable benefit of a significant local clientele that brought a buzz and familiar intimacy that has diminished. We nevertheless had a great meal as I hope the photos illustrate.

Collection of tomatoes with vegetables, fruits, flower and salad

Foie gras with beetroots and turnips

Veal with Artichokes

Sweetbreads with chanterelles

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Rhubarb and strawberries carpaccio with wild strawberry sorbet

And for petrolheads less interested in food there were, as usual, a number of interesting cars in the open car park at Les Crayeres
Lamborghini

Ferarri

McLaren

And, un-photographed, a large grey British mobile home which a couple presumably had holidayed in and now used as their resting place while they met friends for dinner in the excellent garden Brasserie.
For those still interested in looking if not in commenting I will post the Cote St. Jacques and Domaine des Hauts de Loire reports next.