6 rue de la Cave
41110 POUILLE
Telephone: 02.54.71.44.44
Fax 02.54.71.74.00
http://www.le-bousquet.com
Provincial France in spring is a storybook brought to life – verdant hills meandering into the distance, narrow roads ribboning between fields of flax and wheat, waves of wisteria rippling down rough stone walls. I made my home for six months in one of the tiny villages that dotted this picturesque landscape. Pontlevoy was lovely as a postcard, with crooked cobblestone-paved streets, the local boulangerie, and an ancient abbey.
And, like a postcard, you can only look at it so long before it becomes … well … boring.
Boring in a good way, like attending a symphony when you don’t like string music but want to feel cultured. But even though your attentions are good, halfway into the first act you look around at the rapt faces around you and realize that you are utterly, inexcusably … bored.
In Pontlevoy, the best way to alleviate said boredom was to pile into our rusting red Peugeot (dubbed the Red Rocket) and head off to one of the neighboring towns for an evening of fine dining. (Which is one of the reasons why we ended up braving French aerobic classes.) And, oh, we found such distractions to seduce and entrance the most stalwart of dieters. Duck in a port sauce, soft as velvet and tender as butter. Desserts that made you gain a kilo just by breathing their aroma.
One of our favorite haunts was the restaurant-grill Le Bousquet, and if you’re ever traipsing along the trail of the grands châteaux of the Loire Valley, this restaurant is definitely worth a side trip all of its own.
This unique restaurant is located in the tiny village of Pouillé, about 19 km east of the Chenonceau château. It was created in 1969, when two students were exploring and found a honeycomb of old wine cellars – caves – cut into the side of a hill.
“Wouldn’t it be a fantastic idea to open a restaurant here?” they thought. “Better yet, how about a grill – a grill inside the cave? Maignifique, n’est-ce pas?” And then they went and opened a bottle of wine and celebrated. The one small problem standing in the way between them and their dream of a subterranean grill was the huge grove of trees blocking the entrance to the caves, but that was nothing a little razing and digging didn’t clear out in a jiffy.
The students originally wanted to name their restaurant “Le Bosquet,” in honor of the bosquet, or “grove,” that had hid the entrance of the caves. But a slip of the pen at the local prefecture transformed the bosquet into bousquet, and the name stuck. Twenty-five years later, Le Bousquet remains one of the most distinctive restaurants in the Loire Valley.
Even in the wet-blanket-heat of summer, the air in Le Bousquet is cool, with just a touch of dampness. Sometimes, after a heavy rain, the stone walls glisten as water trickles down them. It always smells of wet stone, and the acrid smell of burning wood from the grill, and a lingering aroma of sharp mustard – that ubiquitous ingredient that exists in every salad dressing the French make.
You can choose to be seated in the main room of the restaurant, or, if your group wants a bit more privacy, you can ask to be seated in one of the nooks and crannies pocking the sides of the old cave. If you decide to sit in the main area, try and get a seat near the roaring grill, and watch as your food is prepared.
The food is simple, with few choices – no fancy creme brulées here – but the fare is hearty, heavy, and good. Menu items can be ordered à la carte, or as one of the three featured menus. I personally don’t recommend the menus for the simple reason that you’ll get an appetizer of rillettes, which is a potted pork paté of sorts. And don’t get the andouillette, which is tripe sausage.
Everything besides the rillettes and the andouillette, however, is heavenly. I strongly recommend the saumon en papillotes, a leaf-wrapped salmon baked in a tinfoil packet on the roaring grill. And don’t forget dessert and the obligatory cup of café at the end of the meal.
I took my parents to the restaurant when they came to visit, and they liked the restaurant so much that they wanted to go back for dinner the next night. Unfortunately, when they arrived at the restaurant, they discovered it was closed for the rest of the week. So, before you head off to visit Le Bousquet, be sure to call ahead and make certain the restaurant is open.
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