"TA : Auberge de Rochefort 19470 Le Lonzac France tel: 05 55 9793 42 MERVEILLEUX! Le Lonzac is a tiny one- horse town situated in the middle of mid France. The villages surrounding it are filled with farmers and second home owners; the countryside is...green, gently undulating and the rich soil produces various food crops, fruit trees and, most importantly of all, Limousin cattle. These are large beasts, a beautiful rich brown all over and appear to produce good milk as well as high quality beef: they can be seen grazing in plentiful numbers on fields of lush green grass all over this area. Le Lonzac itself has clearly seen better days: a significant proportion of its shops are empty- but there is still a nice baker's , a small supermarket and Auberge de Rochefort. Our noses led us to open the door of the restaurant, as the smells wafting out served as a powerful communicator that good food was served here. This was further confirmed when we saw tables filled with farmers, still in their overalls, sitting at communal tables, eating lunch together. On questioning, we were told that only luncheon was served during the week, with dinner just available at weekends- which turned out to mean Saturday only. We therefore booked for the following Saturday- which turned out to be essential as all of the dozen or so tables were full that evening. The menu was short, usually a very good sign that everything is very fresh, with 5 or 6 starters, main courses desserts. The fixed price menu was €22 and included 2/3 of the dishes on the menu. We were a table of 5 our first courses were variously: warm goat's cheese with salad pork noisettes with mustard grain. These were universally declared delicious as well as very nicely presented. Next, and this was the moment I had been waiting for, three of us were served Limousin beef; the other two having chosen chicken. It was well worth the wait. The beef, which was in one juicy piece, rather than slices, was absolutely siblime and beautifully presented with fresh local vegetables. In fact both the people who had ordered chicken, immediately regretted their choice once they had seen our meals arrive at the table. My fellow beef eaters both said that it was the best beef they had ever tasted: as for me, the only other beef that tasted this good was eaten in Buenos Aires, which is a lot further to travel for a decent dinner. The portions were so large, though I tried really hard, I was unable to finish mine, but a male companion was more than happy to help me out! I was completely unable to face the idea of dessert, but the rest of the group were made of sterner stuff and therefore ordered variously chocolate fudge cake (served with cream and ice cream) and a strawberry sundae, both of which caused more moans of delight when consumed. What more can I say? The decor and ambience are that of a fairly typical french provincial restaurant, complete with a small white dog who wanders round and lies by tables as he sees fit. Service was both friendly and efficient; each course arrived without too long a wait and the place was immaculate. The lady proprietor was welcoming, if a little formal; her assistant spoke good english and was very enthusiastic: they made a very good team. Truly this was French regional cooking at its best: if I were a farmer, I would be beating a path here for my lunch too!"
