A retreat at Grillou is not the place for deprivation, fasting or self-flagellation; we aim to feed all your senses and so good food and wine will form an integral part of your time here. We take food seriously. We know from our own experience that really good food not only tastes good and is pleasurable to eat, but nourishes and enlivens us from the inside out. We’ll cook and serve you food that is authentic, colourful and full of flavour, based on ingredients that are simple, local and seasonal, grown and prepared with love and a light touch using methods that are sustainable and often organic. We make pretty much everything here from scratch; in season our own potager will provide much of the inspiration.

Our speciality is cooking with vegetables; we’re not actually vegetarian (though will happily cook vegetarian food if you are) and do use some fish and meat, although in small quantities and rather more as an accompaniment to our vegetable dishes than the other, more usual, way round.

Breakfast offers various cereals, granola, porridge in cold weather, home made yoghurt, fresh juice, different breads (home made using organic flours, or fresh from our village boulangerie), viennoiserie (croissants, pain au chocolat or pain aux raisins), or a sweet or savoury ‘cake’, fresh fruits and compôtes, home made jams and local honey, with coffee, tea or chocolate.

Lunch usually consists of a hot or cold soup, followed by various salads, maybe a tart, tortilla or some charcuterie, then cheese and fruit, served with local organic apple or grape juice. Picnic lunches are always an option if you want to go out walking.

In the afternoons there will be coffee (or tea) and home made cake, or in hot weather some of our own ice cream.

Dinner consists of a three course, no-choice menu – not the usual small ‘starter’ and big ‘main’ but two equally balanced courses of contrasting ingredients, flavour and texture, followed by dessert (sample dishes shown in the left hand column to give you an idea of our style). Meat or fish may play a part for non-vegetarians. Dinner is served with wine, and followed by coffee, tea or infusion.

We can accommodate most simple food allergies, though not (due to a lack of locally available ingredients) coeliac or gluten-free diets. Our cooking, while not heavy in either dairy or eggs, does nevertheless include both and we don’t offer a purely vegan alternative.

We’d normally suggest taking breakfast and lunch in your own space and then joining us for dinner, but this is, of course, wholly flexible; we’ll work out with you what you prefer when you arrive and then on an ongoing basis.