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Barge Luciole: Cuisine
Hotel Barging
Burgundy, France

Gone are the days when you couldn’t get a bad meal in Paris, but for seven delectable days it was still true on The Luciole.

I’m a fuzzy on the breakfasts, but they were reported to be excellent. By the time I showed up—two hours late—my toast had to be made from bread that was two and a half hours old! Slathering it with France's impossibly-good butter and eat-alone-for-pure-pleasure jam, I made do.

Lunch began as our handsome Chef described the delicacies he’d whipped up to assuage our hunger and our Captain told the wine-and-cheese tales of today’s selections. A typical lunch included leak-courgette-Comte (a cheese) tart, Thai coconut chicken, pea and sweet corn rice, verdant greens and ribboned carrots.

We washed this down with a Bourgogne Aligoté 2007 Olivier Morin. After our cheese course, on that day a Saint Felicien and Abondance, we finished off with barge-made raspberry ice with biscotti.

Note: Should you be a persnickety eater, like us Californians, you will be glad to know that the Chef is more than willing to adapt you plate to your allergic, dietary or spiritual requirements.

Spoiled by a week’s worth of great food, expectations were high for the Captain’s dinner on the last night. The dining room had morphed from sunny café to posh dinner party. Pink rose petals peppered the crisp white linens. Napkins held a rose for each woman and were folded into white tuxes with black bow ties for each man.

We commenced with a homemade marbled terrine of Foie Gras with toasted brioche and red-onion marmalade. This rich, silky terrine was served with a Chablis premier cru Buteaux, 2006 Domaine Servin from the chardonnay grapes of Burgundy’s famous limestone terrior.

The entrée, a classic filet of beef, was not from any old cow, but from France’s best, the Charolais cattle. It was a full-flavored, yet buttery beef. The mushroom gratin and Claret sauce added the just right woodsy-fall touch. The Charolais are a Burgundy specialty and so was our wine, a Marsannay "Clos St Urbain" 2007 Domaine Fournier.

And then, the cheese. There was an Epoisse, a Burgandian marvel which is washed weekly with a brine made from with Marc (what’s left after the wine is pressed) de Bourgogne. "The aroma," Neil said, "is one of 13th century peasants’ socks." But the taste—wonderful, creamy and smooth.

Then there was a Roquefort—an authentic cave-aged Roquefort—not one of its many impersonators. "Roquefort was a happy accident," Neil said, explaining that while a shepherd was resting in a cave, he noticed a lovely young woman and followed her leaving the cheese in the cave. Months later when he went back for it, the cave’s natural penicillin had created the first Roquefort. "It’s strong, salty cheese," he added and warned us to eat last.

For me, the sine qua non was the Brie de Meaux. I’m not sure if that’s because of the cheese or because Neil told us it was one of Charlemagne’s favorites—and I’ve always had a thing for him. Another royal Charles, father of King Louis XII, while waiting out his hostage, sent his beloved a poem and a brie de Meaux. Captain Neil provided us with a fine recitation:

Sweetheart mine I send to you
Selected with all the care that’s due
A brie de Meaux to make you sigh
To let you know that saddened by
Your absence languishing I am quite
Deprived of all my appetite
And that is why I send this Brie…
What a sacrifice it is for me.

To which, I add:
And what a sacrifice it is for me
To be home with only memories.

The Barge Luciole web site.
Article on Barge Luciole.
Article on the Barge excursions.                                                                                

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