If you happen to ask your friend, recently returned from France, whether he traveled in the Orléanais, he will almost certainly give you a blank look. Ask him, on the other hand, if he saw the matchless cathedral at Chartres, or the châteaux at Blois or Chambord, and his answer will probably be an enthusiastic yes. He has been in the Orléanais all right, but without knowing it. People travel in Burgundy or Brittany and accept them as provinces, but the travel folders never urge them to visit the Orléanais as such.
It is a province overshadowed by its cities and its châteaux, but it is a definite and delightful parcel of France, rich in its soil and architectural treasures. It rubs elbows with Normandy and the Touraine and welcomes almost as many visitors. It is a thoroughly pleasant part of the country, especially along the banks of the Loire, and is admirably equipped to greet the traveler with good food and wine, as you shall see. It is also rather tragic in spots, for the Orléanais suffered cruelly in the swift-moving days following the invasion of Normandy, and many of its towns and bridges were laid low. Those scars are already disappearing, and new structures in freshly cut sandstone are rising from the debris. Your visit to Vendôme, Blois, Orléans, or Gien will reveal how courageous has been the French comeback.
The Orléanais is roughly composed of three départements:Eure-et-Loir, Loiret, and Loir-et-Cher, but for our purposes it is an epicurean entity in itself. Gastronomically, it is first rate without being highly individual. Strangely enough, the provinces bordering the lower Loire are short on creative culinary touches, and their regional bag of tricks is limited. No bouillabaisse or cassoulet or quiche Lorraine has developed here. It is good, all-round French cooking, you will find, with few individual accents. There are some purely local wines, however, which are a genuine adventure. One is called Gris-Meunier, a pale vin rosé which is fragrant and infinitely refreshing. The most memorable vin du pays is St. Jean-de-Bray, a light, very clear red wine which, believe it or not, is delicious when chilled. I first encountered this exceptional wine at the Restaurant Couteau in Paris, a hidden favorite of many a Paris gourmet. Monsieur Couteau comes from a family of restaurateurs in the Orléanais and has his own private source of this cru. He served it in decanters immersed in ice buckets, and the more enlightened members of the Club des Cent among them Curnonsky himself, always drank it with their summer meals. St. Jean-de-Bray is a wine to remember! They grow plenty of grapes in the Orléanais, but the vast majority of them go into the making of wine vinegar, the best in France.
The good earth gives forth in abundance in the Orléanais. The broad river Loire yields a succulent treasure of fish, and the many forests are well populated with game. You will probably find as good game pâtés and pies, as delicate fish and tender asparagus here as in any other part of France. The hotels and restaurants are above the French average, which is no faint praise. Many of them are in quiet towns along the river bank, ideal for a week end. The following list will, I hope, give you a choice of inviting places where good food is blended with rural charm. First, in the Département of Fure-et-Loir, is
Chartres
Many travelers will tell you that a visit to Chartres, its old streets, and its sublime cathedral, was their most inspiring experience. For almost a millenium, people have been making pilgrimage to this incomparable treasure rising out of the broad wheat fields of La Beauce. Chartres comes once in the life of every traveler to France, but a good meal doesn't always come with it. I fear this will make me sound superannuated, but I'll admit that I've been working on the hotel and restaurant problem in Chartres for almost thirty years without finding the perfect solution. The hotels on the place Epars are adequate, but their prices reflect, naturally enough, the heavy tourist influx. After spending six weeks in Chartres last summer, I can, however, make one recommendation with entire enthusiasm. This is the RESTAURANT MACÉ, at 24 rue Noël-Ballay, an unassuming, spotlessly clean establishment at the end of a paved courtyard. As you pass by the immaculate kitchen and its alert young chef, you instinctively know that the cooking will be simple, honest, and unusually palatable. That's precisely what it is, and at a very reasonable tariff. Last year the prix fixe was three hundred francs, meaning that a good meal with wine and tip came to less than a dollar and a half. The Restaurant Macé has many local regulars who appear every evening and who look very forlorn on the day the restaurant is closed. We joined the group with enthusiasm and shared their weekly anguish when the staff had the day off. You will dine adequately elsewhere in Chartres, but Macé stands the test of time best.
Jouy
A pleasant and popular way to visit Chartres is to engage a private car in Paris for the day and to lunch somewhere along the route. Some unsung gourmet among the chauffeurs of these private cars doubtless deserves credit for the popularity of the HÔTEL PROVIDENCE in the remote village of Jouy, some seven miles east of Chartres. At midday, the limousines usurp most of the cobbled streets near this hotel, which has all of the atmosphere of an ancient country auberge. The rustic kitchen, hung with old copper, is a picturesque joy, 3nd there are several private salons around the courtyard, which is filled with parasol-sheltered tables. If you don't mind sharing the Hotel Providence with your fellow traveler (and after all, why should you?), this provides an unforgettable spot for lunch. The food is delicious, and Monsieur Delaunay is capable of serving you a truly Lucullan repast The less elaborate prix fixe meals are fairly-priced, too. The service, by country lasses, seemed a trifle slow, except in the chauffeur's room, where things fairly buzzed. One suspected that the chauffeurs fared even better than their fares, I can't recall seeing more contented car-drivers. What a pleasant métier! A lunch a day in this superb spot, good local wines, and each day a different passenger to pay the bill!
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