[First published Financial Times Weekend, 14th May 2005]

Have you ever stopped to ponder the peculiarly French concept of the restaurant avec chambres? There’s a fundamental philosophical difference between such an establishment and a hotel. Hotels do beds and bedding, bathrooms, bathrobes, baskets of soaps and shampoos, minibars and TVs. Restaurants avec chambres (RACs), while they make certain concessions to bed and bath, are basically about food. It’s all a question of priorities.

Hotels belong in towns; RACs are rural creatures. They are perfect for the long-distance traveller looking for a one-night stand en route to somewhere else, with the assurance of a memorable meal built in. Or they provide an attractive base-camp from which to explore a promising region. Increasingly, as France enforces its alcohol ban at the wheel, RACs appeal to locals too. Over years of travel through France, we’ve built up a dossier of such places. In fact, if I weren’t fearful of trademark violations, I would consider founding my own RAC club. 

The Relais de Reuilly in Reuilly-Savigny is the quintessential RAC with just 7 rooms. Set in the heart of Champagne country, southwest of Reims and close to Château-Thierry, it’s perfectly placed for a weekend break from Paris, or for people speeding south from the Channel en route to Switzerland or Italy. Perched beside the road, it has an expansive terrace below which the ground slopes away to reveal a beautiful medieval stone church. Beyond the church the famed Champagne vineyards are visible. 

Martial Berthuit is in the kitchen, his wife Line is front-of-house. A meal chez Berthuit generally opens with a glass of Champagne (try the Laurent Perrier rosé) accompanied by a little family of amuse-gueules lined up on a tiny tray. The daddy is a tall, slender glass of sweet potato ‘cappuccino’, in the middle comes a buxom ramekin of crab and horseradish cream, and the runt of the litter is a foie gras mousse on a sweet tomato jelly. 

In the winter months, scallops may be in evidence, seared in the pan and served four ways: with a silken, buttery apple purée and crunchy nuts, with a sliver of artichoke and some peeled broad beans, on an onion and pepper ragout, and on a bed of bittersweet endives. Lamb racks are served perfectly pink, along with a succulent piece of shoulder, which is gently braised and teased apart into juicy threads rather like rillettes. 

There’s a decent cheese board from which it’s worth having a crack at the local Chaource. This bloomy-rind, soft, creamy, cow’s milk cheese can be a wonderful Champagne experience, or a deeply disappointing (probably pasteurized) one - too salty and unevenly ripe. Monsieur Berthuit gets his just right. The chef is also something of a chocolate specialist. If chocolate savarin with citrus ice cream, or chocolate tart or the soft-centred, melting moelleux au chocolat are available, give any or all of them a go. 

The Bon Acceuil in Malbuisson, close to Pontarlier in the Jura, has 12 rooms and is another worthy contender for RAC status. In winter, the village (at 900 metres altitude) slumbers under a generous coating of powder snow and is a cross-country skier’s paradise. In summer it’s great for walking, or for water sports on the little Lac Saint Point. 

This is the country of Mont d’Or, Morbier and Comté cheese, Morteau sausages, ceps and morels, fat rainbow trout from the Doubs, venison from the forests and gleaming black cherries from Fougerolles. Chef Marc Faivre takes each of these by turns, depending on the season, working on them with a lightness of touch uncommon in these Jurassic parts. His wife Catherine guides you gently through the menu, proposing here a saddle of rabbit roasted with local Savagnin wine, the legs gently stewed with coriander and garnished with the fresh herb, there a fillet of beef with a sternly reduced red wine sauce and Monsieur Tatou’s tasty potatoes, hollowed out and filled with heaps of chervil and chives. 

The cheese board is small and to the point and features some wonderful stuff from the Sancey-Richard fromagerie down the road in Metabief. If you can time your visit between November and March, you’ll be sure to catch the unmatched Mont d’Or, an unctuous liquid golden cheese that is scooped from its box with a ceremonial spoon and served with country bread studded with walnuts. To finish there’s a reassuring selection of granny puddings: clafoutis of cherries, rhubarb tart, baked apples and bricelets (a bit like superior ice cream cones) filled with speckled vanilla ice and served with strawberries. 

The third member-elect of my select club is the Auberge St Fleuret tucked away in the Lot valley in the tiny village of Estaing (as in Giscard d’ – who’s just put in a bid for the seigneurial chateau), a mere 45 minutes from Rodez airport. There are just 14 rooms, modestly priced and offering special concessions for pilgrims – Estaing is on the Road to Compostela. 

This is picture-book France. Fairytale medieval castles lord it over riverside villages, Gothic stone bridges span the waters, superb Romanesque churches strut their stuff. The exquisite medieval village of Conques, a UNESCO heritage site with its Abbey of Sainte Foy and its incomparable treasury of statues and reliquaries, is not far away. To the north is the wild plateau of Aubrac, carpeted in early summer with wild jonquils, narcissus and orchids, home to lustrous-eyed, toffee-coloured Aubrac cows and robust rounds of Laguiole cheese.

Chef Gilles Moreau is a staunch defender of his terroir, sourcing his raw materials from local markets and growers. There are 4 different prix-fixe menus, ranging from the modestly priced 3-course Terroir et Tradition (available any time except Sunday lunch) to the tasty blow-out(‘Le Gouteux’). We agonised between plump snails threaded on skewers served over a vivid green parsley sauce with asparagus, or duck foie gras wrapped in a chicken breast medallion, followed by a piece of cod that passed all understanding with its buttery, nutmeggy spinach or roast duck breast with wild mushrooms. 

The cheese chariot has superb local Laguiole (pronounced La-Yole),Fourme d’Ambert shot through with blue veins and a delectable little soft farmhouse cheese called L‘Ecir. Puddings include a parfait perfumed with pain d’epices (gingerbread), a crumbly tart oozing with chocolate served with Mascarpone ice cream, or a light and virtuous selection of tropical fruits with coconut ice.

My final candidate is the Hostellerie Placide in Tence, high up in the Massif Central. The Michelin guide has it down as a hotel, but at heart it’s an RAC. The town, whose tall, austere stone houses are clustered around a curve on the river Lignon, is about equidistant from St Etienne and St Puy-en-Velay. Some of the older inhabitants can still remember when Tence was connected to the wider world by the railway line that came up from the Rhone valley. Passengers arriving for business or pleasure, or simply to take refuge from the sweltering heat of the valley – we’re up at 700 metres here - emerged from the train to find a hotel just across the tracks. The tracks are still there, rusty now and silent, but the station hotel, now the Hostellerie Placide, is thriving.

Go for broke and take the full-choice, half-board option (around the 80-euro mark per person per day) – this gives you free rein with the menu and plenty of chances to test chef Pierre-Marie Placide. On a recent visit, dishes included seared foie gras poised over a burnished sauce based on tamarind, or a classic slab of marbled foie gras with bilberry chutney and slices from a toasted lentil loaf.

Next came a superb piece of beef from the nearby Mezenc plateau with a creamy custard of morels and nutmeg-infused spinach. Alternatively there was a saddle of hare pinkly roasted over a gorgeous civet-inspired sauce with caramelised turnips and pumpkin roast in its skin. The cheese trolley is terrific, strong on offerings from the Auvergne (Cantal, Laguiole, Bleu d’Auvergne), and the final flourish was a crunchy ‘millefeuille’ with gingerbread cream, tiny pears Belle Helene and a quince sorbet. 

Auberge Le Relais, 2 rue de Paris, 02850 Reuilly-Sauvigny
Tel. +33 (0)3 23 70 35 36
auberge.relais.de.reuilly@wanadoo.fr
www.relaisreuilly.com

Le Bon Acceuil, Lac Saint-Point, Rive Droite, 25160 Malbuisson
Tel. +33 (0)3 81 69 30 58
lebonaccueilfaivre@wanadoo.fr

Auberge St. Fleuret, 19 rue Francois d’Estaing, 12190 Estaing
Tel. +33 (0)5 65 44 01 44
auberge.st.fleuret@wanadoo.fr
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/auberge.st.fleuret

Hostellerie Placide, Route d’Annonay, 43190 Tence
Tel. +33 (0)4 71 59 82 76
placide@hostellerie-placide.fr
www.hostellerie-placide.fr