Charming hotel and gastronomic restaurant : the Pavillon de Gouffern

The Pavillon de Gouffern is located in the Auge region. Lying between Argentan and the Haras du Pin, the hotel offers a gastronomic stopover at the heart of a natural park extending over 200 acres. Combining French traditional cuisine and modern creativity, the Chef Eric LeJeune crafts fish and Normandy produce with passion, regularly renewing the menu. He offers a shortened menu, with a resolutely contemporary style of cuisine inspired by the great chefs of the day, Alain Ducasse in particular. Fish is one of the gastronomic speciality dishes of the hotel restaurant : Atlantic bass, saint pierre, burbot and barbet are used to make up a creative menu. The saint-pierre, proposed with a fondue of fennel pickled with dried apricots and served with the juice of the meat is a surprising innovation and the sea-bass on cougette spaghetti with dried fruit with truffle sauce is a delight to the palate. The restaurant also proposes a mix of fish with Normandy mushrooms, freshly picked in the Gouffern forest.

Just 20 km from the hotel, at the heart of Normandy’s Orne department, nestled in the beautiful Auge region, lies the village of Camembert and its world famous cheese. Its history began in 1791 when Marie Harel put the last touch to a recipe, now a must in French and more specifically, Normand gastronomy. The hotel’s restaurant puts this geographical proximity to exquisite culinary use, by offering gastronomic camembert based recipes.

Camembert “en papillotte” is one of the restaurant’s curiosities. Cooked in its wooden casing, it is then consumed like a fondue for the not-to-be-missed cheese course. Another gastronomic specialty is roasted camembert, cooked “en croute”, it is served with dried and candied fruits. The camembert of Normandy can also be served with a salad and a side of blueberries and a blueberry dressing.

A restaurant in Normandy could not possibly exist without proposing tasty recipes made from apples. Associated with blood sausage in an artistic and gastronomic composition. Sliced in serpentine, it is then set lightly upon a thin layer of sausage and served with lettuce and a honey dressing. The restaurant also offers a variety of apple-based desserts, such as golden apple gratin in cider butter accompanied by “pommeau”, an apple liqueur. Last, but never least, the ever-famous tarte tatin, created by the Tatin sisters.

The hotel is ideally located between two palatable regions. Taste the pleasures of apple cider from the Auge country, with its equally famous stud farms, and towards Domfront, the region of pear cider, known as “poiré”. Both ciders and poirés are ideally suited to accompany the gastronomic creations of the restaurant.

The restaurant is no more than two hours from Paris, easily accessible from Highway A28, which crosses Normandy, taking the “Gacé” exit, between Rouen and Le Mans, it is ideal for business lunches fully served in less than an hour in private lounges. Requests should be specified when selecting the composition of meals and booking your rooms.