HOSTELLERIE LAFARQUE
[BIZ/LEI: Pepinster, May 8] Insiders will remember that the Hostellerie Lafarque was a celebrated gastronomic venue with two Michelin stars, through to 2003 - when the previous owner passed away. It is now under new management and has been completely renovated. In addition to cable TV, modem access, minibars, a kitchen garden, private parking and a helipad, there is a covered pool, tennis, golf, riding and shooting close by. Five state-of-the-art rooms and three suites are available and the new management team includes the owner Jan Huygen, with a distinguished career in the industry where all the right names pop up. The director Marie-Christine Albini hails from the Alsace. Her last tour of duty was at the highly renowned Chateau Les Crayères, near Rheims, where Gerard Boyer essayed and succeeded in making perfection accessible to man, in the shape of his fricassée de champignons sauvages. Samuel Blanc, the chef from the Jura, completes the team. His heritage includes such distinguished hostelries as the Wald Slosshotel in Friedrichsruhe and the Schwarzwaldstube at the Hotel Traube in Tonbach, both in Germany. It looks as if the team has its eyes on the stars again; and, if you had tasted Blanc’s sea bass with a pearl barley risotto, asparagus and a sauce of the Jura’s yellow wine, you would think they were on the right track. Go to your helicopter, you can fly in from Versailles for EUR 2880; from Maastricht for EUR 930; or, you could drive in from Eijsden, at the cost of about EUR 5 in fuel.
Why not leap into your chopper and fly to the helipad on the tree-fringed lawns of Hostellerie Lafarque. You will be greeted by the sight of an Anglo-Norman manor house, with its characteristic half-timbered façade, in the rolling foothills of the Ardennes. You could also have reached it, in half an hour, by road from Liège or Maastricht.
http://www.hostellerie-lafarque.com/