Saint-Julien-du-Sault: Les Bons Enfants

Only an hour and a half from Paris, the Yonne area of northern Burgundy is a delightful weekend destination, with captivating towns like Sens and Joigny to explore, the excellent wines of Irancy to discover (Colinot is the best producer) and stunning landscapes to savor. One of my favorite villages is Saint-Julien-du-Sault, a sleeping beauty that is currently coming back to life thanks to a variety of new investments, including Les Bons Enfants—a gastronomic restaurant and a separate bistrot (and, coming soon, a hotel)—installed in a set of lovingly restored 18th-century houses in the center of town. The sheltered courtyard makes for perfect outdoor dining, as I recently discovered during an excellent €28 prix-fixe lunch that began with delicious cold pea soup, followed by roast cod with fork-mashed potatoes, cheese, and tarte fine aux pommes. Note, too, that these Bons Enfants are well worth a detour if you’re driving on the A6 autoroute between Paris and the south of France—getting off at exit 13, we enjoyed a fine lunch and were on the road again in well under two hours.

4 pl de la Mairie, Saint-Julien-du-Sault, 03.86.91.17.38. Bistrot €35, gourmet restaurant €70. Prices are per person without wine.

Originally published in the October 2009 issue of France Today.

See our complete restaurant guide