Le Crot Foulot; only a three and a half hour drive from Provence, (an hour north of Lyons) in the small village of Jugy in the Burgandy region of France, our first night stop on route back to England. My trusty travel resource, Alastair Sawday, proved to be as splendidly reliable as always. We needed something close and accesible to the A6 autoroute and I wanted somewhere charming which also served dinner on a Sunday night, not always an easy find in France out of high season. Le Crot Foulot, an exquisite Chambres d’Hôtes de Charme in Jugy, just outside of Chalon-sur-Saône, was a total gem, highly recommeded!
The rain had been relentless during our 390km drive north. The sky was still heavy and threatening even when we stopped. Just 5 minutes from the autoroute, Le Crot Foulot in tiny Jugy, was one of those places you would never have found if you didn’t know it was there. As we pulled into the driveway it looked just as great as Alistair Sawday had promised.
The warm reception from Annie, Le Crot Foulot’s owner, wiped away the ‘tears’ of our journey as she made us a welcomed ‘cuppa’ (clearly used to taking care of the Brits!) and showed us to our room.We were not disappointed! Our room, part of this amazing conversion, exposed timbers and ambience oozing out of every crevice, cleverly combining old world charm with super modern efficiency.
When we ventured back downstairs for supper, Annie and her husband Jan, were busy in their kitchen preparing our supper but still more than happy to chat! I knew we were in for a treat as they had previously owned a very successful restaurant in Brussels, Belgium, moving south to establish this charming bed and breakfast.
In the dining room we met the other guests. If you are designated as a ‘chambres d’hôtes’ in France you are only allowed a maximum of 5 bedrooms, on this evening four of Annie and Jan’s rooms were full. Lucky us, we dined ‘family style’ with our wonderful hosts over a delicious dinner and 6 other delightful and interesting people; a Dutch couple on their way to northern Spain, a Belgian couple headed for Montpellier and an English couple off to spend ten days in Ménerbes, just 15 minutes from where we had been in Lourmarin! We seemed to have so much to share, including a love of good food, good wine and great company!
Here we all are at breakfast the following morning:
We also discovered that we had another car enthusiast amongst us! The Belgian couple were driving through France in their immaculate 1970’s Citroen DS, Chris was very happy!!
If you ever need somewhere to stay in this part of the world, Annie and Jan’s Le Crot Foulot is not to be missed, we will most definitely be returning!
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