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Château de Bagnols | 69620 Bagnols | France
Tel: +33 4 74 71 40 00 | Fax:+33 4 74 71 40 49 |
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Menu
The menus in the château's dining rooms and on the outside terrace celebrate the region's exceptional cuisine. Its robust and direct character is due to the combination of fine local raw materials and the enthusiasm, knowledge and vigilance of local people, who make good food a top priority. The Beaujolais cuisine has been called 'the most sumptuous kind of country cooking brought to a point of finesse beyond which it would lose its character' (Elizabeth David).
From the towers and terraces of the Château de Bagnols the view is of pastures and vineyards and a succession of wooded hills. Such scenery would please anyone, but it may also turn the thoughts of some to lunch, for the beauty of the Beaujolais countryside is of a particularly generous, gastronomic kind. This is a country of good living, where vines and vast Charolais cattle flourish and little orchards bear pears and cherries. The landscape has been shaped by the pleasures of the table, and these pleasures are never far from the minds of the Beaujolais people.
Each season has its delicacies. During vendage (the grape harvest time), farmers' wives prepare three meals a day for the pickers. It is a point of pride to feed them well, but also of prudence: good food will attract the same pickers back year after year. At trestle tables in barns and garages, vast dishes of beef or chicken cooked in Beaujolais, bread by the van load and many glasses of last year's wine fortify the teams for tomorrow's labour.
The winters are cold here, dusting hedges and trees with a deep frost. The countryside takes on delicate colours in the clear air: smoke from wood fires, dusky pink soil in the Haut Beaujolais, icy furrows and the soft gleam of old houses built of golden stone around Bagnols. It is a wonderful season to go touring and come back to a homely gratin of vegetables and some locally made sausages - delicate boudins, andouillette made in the Lyonnaise fashion from veal, or a plump cervelas baked in wine. An occasion might be marked by game, roasted with grapes or mushrooms, or a pot-au-feu, rounded off with grand-mère's special fruits in eau de vie.
The bright days of spring are some of the busiest in the vineyards, but once the green tendrils appear there might be some time for a little fishing - the river fish of the area are the basis of many dishes, most famously le brochet (the pike), turned into quenelles and served with sauce Nantua. It is also time to dig the vegetable gardens, which supply Beaujolais families with salad leaves, herbs, onions, cabbage, broad and runner beans and magnificent cardoons. Contrary to the impression you might get from restaurants, the Beaujolais love vegetables, but they eat them at home. In the spring they will be building up their strength with fresh salad leaves dressed with mustardy vinagrette.
Summer is the time of plenty, when meals stretch out through many hours and courses. People sit on their high terraces enjoying a little wine and greeting neighbours who walk past, or go out to eat en famille. The chèvres (goat's cheeses) are said to be at their best, and the restaurants offer them in many shapes and sizes, prettily arranged on leaves in large wicker trays. Soft fruit served quite plainly often ends a meal, although gourmands might manage a clafoutis - a glorious pudding of cherries baked in light batter.
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