Le 1131 at L’Abbaye de la Bussière – dinner Sunday 21st July 2018

On the recommendation of some recent cooking school clients, we were looking forward to going to this lovely restaurant for dinner.  Neville had said it was in the Realis et Châteaux group but did not mention it had a Michelin star.  He did say it was just a short walk from the Canal de Bourgogne, along which we are travelling, at lock 26, at Bussière.  For those of you who do not know, we are barging on the Canal de Bourgogne, on our 100 year barge, the Betty B.  Along the way, we sometimes find excellent places to eat, but mostly I cook on the barge for everyone.  This season we are travelling with our barge partners, John and Margaret and Zenon and Krys For those of you who do not know, we are barging on the Canal de Bourgogne, on our 100 year barge, the Betty B.  Along the way, we sometimes find excellent places to eat, but mostly I cook on the barge for everyone.  This season we are travelling with our barge partners, John and Margaret and Zenon and Krys

For a few days we intended to check the location of the restaurant, then we forgot. At Victor-sur-Ouche, lock 29, we stopped for the night.  Just prior to dinner, relaxing and sipping our Champagne on deck, and with dinner almost ready, John asked me the check on the location of the restaurant; he felt it was somewhere near us here and it was! Do we go now? Most of us did not want to go NOW! We were tired, hot, some showered and some not!!

Anyway, into the car for John and Zenon to find it, check it out and book us in for Sunday night while in Dijon, a short drive away, so we thought!  Their report back excited us as they described the glorious grounds, 17-acre parklands and ornamental lake, historic buildings and adornments.

Sunday, we book the maxi-taxi for 6.15pm, after our Champagne aperitifs on board.  The short taxi drive was a long 38ks; no maxi-taxi was available and so we had 2 cars for the 6 of us at a cost of €105 each car, before we had even ordered a drink.

On arrival, we were welcomed by a gorgeous young woman who ushered us in and showed us around; into the former chapel, now library and sitting room, the many small sitting rooms, lovely balconied gallery overlooking our restaurant for the evening, Le 1131.

We learnt there are 20 rooms, a more casual Bistrot des Moines, a summer terrace, 2 dovecotes, beehives, a watermill, Pavillon, cemetery, wine press, an orangery for seminars or conferences, apple arches, and of course they available for weddings.

The history of the Abbaye dates back to 1131 when the Cistercian monks arrived.  It thrived for a couple of hundred years, when times changed with the hundred year war, followed by a decline for three hundred years.  Over the past hundred years or so, there have been recent ownership changes and uses of the buildings.  Since 2005, the Abbaye has been owned by an English family who have lovingly restored and modernised it. They have many plans for extensions, pool and further developments.  It is now considered one of the premier country house hotels in France and has won international recognition for excellence. A new era has begun for this ancient estate!

Back to our dinner!    

The staff were fabulous, friendly and attentive.  We were offered aperitifs but went straight to wine with John selecting a pinot noir, Ladoix Premier Cru La Corvée, 2013 for €95 and was really quite nice.

We selected Le Signature du Chef for € for 5 courses plus the lovely tasty extras.

The amuse bouche arrived of a small platter with some tiny crispy baby trout, avocado purée, tomato and zucchini mousse which we devoured.

Then a fabulous, cheesy, large gougère which was delicious, followed by a verrine of parsley and zucchini crème with escargot and tomato, served with croutons which came sitting on top of the lid, which the waiter slipped off and dropped in as he served it.  The bread was ‘to die for’, a superb sour dough with the crunchiest crust and a great Normandie butter.  We enjoyed it so much, we asked for a second serve.

Our first course of organic tomatoes from ‘Christophe’, their market garden.  Red, green and yellow, tomatoes peppered in juice, with a basilic pistou, tomato sorbet gazpacho, with shavings of dry Charolais beef with Dijon mustard.  A taste sensation.

Our entrée was trout from the nearby Yonne River, cooked with olive oil, with raw and grilled zucchini sitting in a and a veloute of curcuma with a drizzle of basil oil and sprinkled with passion fruit bay powder. Really delicious.

The ‘main’ course was a traditional beef, grilled to perfection with vegetables in season, in a luscious, flavoursome jus, onion soubise and ‘perfumed with lovage’.  I really enjoyed it.

All the sauces accompanying these dishes were fabulous in their intense, subtle, beautiful flavours.  I can imagine very time intensive in the making.

The cheese trolley came next with the waiter enthusiastically describing each cheese available.  They always do this too quickly for me to catch every name.  I selected 3 I had not tried before and did the same for Michael and so we shared between us.

Pre-dessert was a lovely surprise of poached pear mousse with a quenelle of cassis sorbet in the centre.  The pear flavour was beautiful and complemented the cassis sorbet perfectly, as one would expect.

Then the main dessert followed and we are starting to feel as if w may have enjoyed enough! But, no, we enjoy the dessert with enthusiasm.  The flavours are divine and intense.  The strawberries are superb with flavours of mint, and Chantilly with L’Anis de Flavigny, which is a local village and famous for these aniseed sweets. The white cigar is made of meringue with a soft centre!

And with the car coming to take us home arriving in seconds, the final course of petit fours to die for….no, no we said and ate them all!

It was a good night out!