In the summer, when it's warm enough to do so, we eat outdoors under the "auvent" as they call the local open verandahs here. However, more often in spring and autumn, it gets a bit chilly in the evenings, so we eat indoors as shown above.
Ian was a free-lance chef and wine consultant in London, and dinners at La Souvigne reflect that, without having any pretensions to being Haute Cuisine in the strict sense of the term. However, on top of the day to day activities of running a B&B, cooking and serving a 5 course meal for up to 8 people at a time is an exhausting business. What that means is that with very great regret, we cannot provide dinner every night, especially if we are still going to be able to do so with enthusiasm and excellence. So in principle, we limit ourselves to 3 dinners a week, never cooking more than two days running. We're delighted to be able to get to know our guests better by welcoming you with a meal the evening they arrive, and then again on any day that other guests (if they wish to eat with us) arrive during your stay.
Normally, we speak French at the dinner table, unless we only have English speaking guests present, although we may make some allowances. Food here is extremely eclectic, and you may easily find that at one meal, we have dishes from five countries in two or three continents! We don't often cook food from the Correze as we feel that is somehow "cheating", however there are plenty of splendid local restaurants where it can be found.
In accordance with Gites de France and the Ministry of Tourism rules regarding « Table d'Hôtes », we only ever serve one menu, and we eat with our guests at one table. This has some implications for those with special dietary needs. We make a point of asking our guests if there are things which they can't eat, but there are, unfortunately, limits. With great regret, we do not serve vegan food, as that would oblige all those at the table to do so. Equally, this being very much a meat eating area, while we CAN serve a fish based main course (or even a vegetarian meal, on occasions), for non meat eaters, we will only agree to do so, if the first people booking the meal are the ones to ask for it. This allows us to inform others of the style of the meal they will be joining us for.
These are a few sample menus, showing the sort of meal we produce. Just about everything that reasonably can be home made is home made, for example when we cook pasta, that's home made, as are our patés and terrines, while often the vegetables and salading are home grown.
As a little extra touch, we are delighted to provide the recipes of any of the dishes we produce. Over the last year, we have been working to put them on line and in fact, just about everything we do regularly is now on line and translated into French. Over 280 recipes! Click here to see them.
