Auprès d'Angèle

A Rougier red sandstone brick house (which used to be the village tax office) located along the Cruou River, with a tree-lined terrace and a dining room adorned with terrazzo floors and blown glass light fixtures hanging from the ceiling… Welcome to Audrey Besson’s chic bistro, where she pays homage to her grandmother Angèle, alias “granny Bras,” mother to the iconic chef Michel Bras. There, Guilhem Bach and his partner, pastry chef Zoé Prudent (who did stints at Le Suquet in Laguiole and La Halle aux Grains in Paris), send out chic and cheeky dishes made with carefully-sourced ingredients and an eye for detail. On the €26 menu the day we went for lunch, we had incredibly tender eggplant from Les Roualdès in Saint-Parthem, roasted and then glazed in fermented confit tomatoes, with a crumble topping made from a local cheese, plus miso espuma; perfectly prepared cusk fillet slow-cooked in the oven and then flash-seared with buckwheat butter, plus creamed parsnip and lentils from the Ferme de Hyars; and for the very simple conclusion to the meal, whipped cream infused with mint and nestled against a fudgy peanut brownie. // Loulou Pic

FEELING THIRSTY? : Natural wines sourced exclusively from the Aveyron department: a pinot noir-syrah blend from the Domaine de Bias (€6 a glass), Passe Carrière, a chenin-roussellou blend from the Domaine Le Verdus (€32 a bottle), or La Coquille, a cabernet-syrah-merlot blend produced by Patrick Rols (€29).
PRICE: : Set menus €26 (weekday lunch), €36 and €50 (Saturday lunch), €39 (Sunday lunch), €36 and €53 (dinner), à la carte €44-52 (from Wednesday lunch through Saturday lunch).