Le Vieux Castillon: Hotel and Restaurant in Provence, France

PonFe Temmuz 13, 2022

10 Rue Turion Sabatier, Castillon-du-Gard, 30210 France; tel: +33 (0)4.66.37.61.61; www.vieuxcastillon.com/home

By JP

Le Vieux Castillon is a hotel and restaurant located in the small village of Castillon-du-Gard, in the Gard Department of the Provence region. The big touristic attraction of the area is the Pont-du-Gard, a Roman aqueduct built a few years B.C. The city of Arles, famous, among other things, for having inspired many of Van Gogh’s paintings, is twenty-five miles away. Outside Arles you find, for instance, the Langlois Bridge, reproduced in a famous Van Gogh’s painting.

Pont du Gard

Langlois Bridge

The Vieux Castillon restaurant, overlooking the pool, has a decor in which the white color dominates and that seems in tune with the sunny Provence. The kitchen is led by Chef Damien Babillaud, who has worked at prestigious Côte d’Azur restaurants; including the two Michelin star L’Oasis at Mandelieu-La-Napoule, near Cannes.

Bar

On the day of our arrival, a mid-May Friday, we had reservations for 8:00 pm and several tables were occupied when we arrived. There were people coming until well after 9:00 pm. In addition to ordering à la carte, three menus were available. We did not consider the 90€ menu and ended up choosing the Menu du Castillon (55€) - appetizer, main course, dessert and cheese selection - instead of the Menu Découverte (70€) that added a second appetizer and a second main course.

Dining room

Before starting the menu we were offered two amuse-bouches. The first was a trio consisting of: tomato financier, quail, and a white cheese with herbs. The financier is a small French cake often with a sweet taste and was the best of the three. The second amuse-bouche was an oyster in a soy and lemon cream.

Amuse-bouche trio

Oyster

As appetizer our choices were:

Oeuf de poule "Onsen", velouté de petits pois, champignons du moment, écume du vin jaune - "Onsen" egg, small peas cream, mushrooms, “vin jaune” foam) (J.P.); the onsen egg is a traditional Japanese way of cooking an egg at low temperature, while onsen is the Japanese word for hot springs; “vin jaune” is a type of white wine made in the Jura region in eastern France. The egg was very good, with a very delicate foam and tasty mushrooms.

"Onsen" egg

Aspèrge verte de pays, crème de parmesan, oignon doux, jus de viande - Green asparagus, Parmesan cream, sweet onion, meat jus (A.M.). A.M. would not miss the high season of asparagus and liked her choice.

Green asparagus

As main course, I chose the cod while A.M. preferred lamb, a favorite of hers:

Dos de cabillaud, mousseline de pommes "Agria" des sables, chorizo et jus de safran – Cod fillet, Agria potato cream, chorizo, saffron jus (J.P.); Agria is a variety of potato cultivated in several European countries.

Cod

Agneau des Comtes de Provence en persille-pistache, Jardinier de legumes printaniers – Comtes de Provence Lamb in parsley-pistacchio, Spring vegetables (A.M.); Comtes de Provence is a brand name used by different food producers, including lamb from sheep raised in Provence.

Agneau des Comtes de Provence

The cod was good, but not memorable. A.M. liked her lamb and observed that the smaller confit portion was the best.

We then ordered the cheese selection. There was no cheese cart and we received a plate with four cheeses that the menu advertised as having been selected by Vincent Vergne, cheese maitre at the Halles de Nimes. The cheeses were: Comté, Saint Nectaire, Rocquefort, Brin du Maquis. I had never had the Saint Nectaire nor the Brin du Maquis, also known as Brin d'Amour, They were both very interesting. The Saint Nectaire is a semi-hard cow-milk cheese from the Auvergne region. The Brin du Maquis is a soft sheep-milk cheese from the Corsica Island. A.M, who is a big fan of Roquefort, thought that this cheese was particularly good.

Cheese tray

Well, now it was time for dessert:

Cube trois chocolat, sorbet cacao 65% Santarem – Three-chocolate cube, cocoa sorbet (J.P.); 65% Santarem is a chocolate from a blend of cocoa beans coming usually from Brazil, Trinidad-Tobago or Ivory Coast.

Three chocolate cube

Tarte au citron meringue – lemon meringue tart (A.M.)

Lemon meringue tart

Desserts were nice, but mine was too strong on chocolate. My fault really, I should have guessed it from the description.

To accompany dinner, we did not take any risks. We picked a Chablis Premier Cru that I had had several times before, although not necessarily from the same producer: Chablis Premier Cru, Montée de Tonnère, Louis Michel, 2012 (72€). The wine was good. The Michel family has been producing wines since the 19th century. This winery is located in the heart of the Chablis wine region and Wine Spectator gives its Montée de Tonnère, 2012, a rating 90, describing the wine as “rich and mouth filling, yet also balanced and bright, showing peach, melon, apple and lemon flavors”.

Chablis Premier Cru

Since we had had dinner the night before at Anne-Sophie's Pic, comparisons were unavoidable. However, this is not a fair comparison. Vieux Castillon and Pic are in two different leagues, including in price. This is confirmed by the Michelin Guide France 2016, where Pic appears with three stars, while Le Vieux Castillon is included without stars or a bib gourmand (good value). Within its league, the restaurant at Vieux Castillon is pretty good and in line with the good quality of the hotel as a whole.