The champagne of villages
Simon Heifer finds a perfect little treat in Ambonnay bsessive autorouters will know one thing: that to drive back from Provence to the Tunnel in one haul is ridiculous on several counts. First, there are the counts of exhaustion and boredom. Second, you drive past too many very interesting parts of France for comfort, and good sense and curiosity ought to dictate that you try to see at least one of them. But it has always been tricky to find the right place to stop. Stop too soon — somewhere like Beaune or Dijon — and you are faced with an enormous drive the next morning, quite possibly with a hangover. Stop too late — the Pas de Calais, perhaps taking in some war cemeteries before striking for home — and you are shattered long before you get there. A few years ago we thought we had found the ideal place — Troyes, just before Burgundy turns into Champagne, with its fine cuisine and mediaeval centre: it just seemed to have nothing but charmless hotels and an incomprehensible one-way system, and we had apparently timed our visit to coincide with a complete refurbishment of the city's infrastructure, which had turned it almost entirely into a building site.
So this time we settled on one of the older towns of Champagne. Chalons-surMarne has always looked unappealing, Reims is crowded and noisy for all its history and beauty, so we looked at Epernay: but could find nowhere there we much liked the look of. The Michelin guide then turned up the village of Ambonnay, on Champagne's south-eastern border; and it recommended the Auberge St Vincent. Now, an auberge is an inn and not a five-star hotel, so there is no point expecting palatial suites, jacuzzis and plasma-screen tellies. But what we got for the astonishing price of €62 a night was exactly what was required: a quiet, clean room with a comfortable bed and all mod cons. However, as some of you may have discerned, we were not there for the ambience.
This humble little B&B boasts one of the finest restaurants in an area of France that positively drips with them. There are five menus to suit all tastes, budgets and levels of greed. Tempted though we were by the top-of-the-range €71 menu, with its comeand-get-me lobster, piles of cheese and various sorbets interrupting various other indulgences, we settled for one at €50. A selection of bonnes bouches was followed by a superb starter of red mullet and asparagus. There were then three different cuts of lamb in various sauces with delicate vegetables, which were faultless. A plate of cheese that had originated in the udders of cows, sheep and goats came next, and finally a trio of puddings: chocolate mousse, rhubarb icecream and a fruit bralee. On the When In Rome principle we washed it down with the house champagne, which was indiscernible from any grande marque that might have been passing. Oddly, they insist if you book a room in the auberge that you dine there too, as if they can't get diners any other way. Frankly, you would want to jump ship if you couldn't dine there — not just because there isn't even a kebab shop otherwise within shouting distance, but because this place is wonderful.
That is not the end of the delights of Ambonnay. It has a church that looks very boringly northern French from the outside, but is sumptuously Romanesque inside, and well worth a moment's cultural inspection. And, of course, there is the champagne: it is everywhere. Despite being a tiny village, there are more than a dozen vignerons: the village really is just one champagne factory. The natives are phenomenally friendly, take credit cards, and there are bargains to be had. Occasional tales of champagne shortages are belied by the 3-for-2 offers at most London off-licences, and when one comes to the source one realises the place is swimming in it. A tasting can be arranged at most of Ambonnay's outlets, and the prices straight from the farm are wonderfully cheap: a case of the 2002 vintage of a jolly nice champagne knocked out at under £120. Although you are unlikely to have heard of any of the Ambonnay labels, the stuff we had was well up to scratch, and very wallet-friendly. Be warned: you could spend much of a day sampling the wares, so bring a large empty boot and a driver: or, hardship of hardships, spend a second night in the Auberge.
Auberge Saint Vincent, 1, rue Saint Vincent, 51150 Ambonnay, France (tel: +33 (0)326 570198; www.auberge-st-vincent.com).
Previous page
