A short drive east brings us to the village of Vinay,where we’ll be staying at Hostellerie La Briqueterie. Built in the 1970s on the site of a former bricks factory, it’s comfortable enough. But we’re really here for the food. Resident chef Michael Nizzero is just 29, but he already holds a Michelin star, having cut his teeth at the renowned Waterside Inn in Berkshire, England, under the Roux brothers.
Like Philipe Mille’s, Nizzero’s cuisine champions regional produce. A tartlet of veal sweetbreads arrives with earthy morels and a foie-gras terrine is accompanied by an apricot compote scented with lavender. Local lamb is served with an olive tapenade, an eggplant “caviar,” and more wild mushrooms, this time girolles. The cheese trolley groans with more than 100 types of fromage, including several versions of the regional specialty Langres, a pungent, oozing cow’s-milk cheese.
After a late breakfast, we follow the quieter, southerly D933 back to Paris. The road takes us through the pretty villages of Fromentiere, Montmirail, and Vieis-Maisons before joining the A4 near La Ferté-sous-Jouarre. In two hours we are in Paris, just in time for an aperitif, with a car trunk full of Champagne bottles to choose from.
Originally appeared in the October/November 2012 print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“Chateaux And Cellars”)
