FOOD:In southwest France there is maison d'hôtes with the right idea - elegant rooms and a great home-grown menu, writes Marie-Claire Digby
THE ROAD TO contentment is littered with the blood, sweat, tears and assorted chequebook stubs of legions of talented home cooks and hosts who thought that opening a small hotel and restaurant - nothing fancy, just good local cooking - was A Good Idea. "Go on, you'll be great at it, and you're such good hosts, people will be queuing up to stay with you," say friends, their enthusiasm fuelled by the thought of free holidays to come.
If the venture is located somewhere sunny, where nobody speaks English, the phone rarely works, and broadband is an aspiration rather than a lifeline . . . all the better.
Soon, reality checks replace salary cheques. Renovation costs skyrocket. Days don't have enough hours in them. Nothing works like it should. And the customers, when there are some, are tiresome and difficult. Before long, the newly-fledged hoteliers wake up and wonder: "What the hell have we done?"
Orlando Murrin, former editor of BBC Good Food magazine and launch editor of Olive magazine (and a Masterchef semi-finalist), admits to having had some of these doubts along the way to setting up his maison d'hôtes in Raynaudes, near Toulouse in southwest France, with his partner, Peter Steggall.
But, with more than 1,100 paying guests visiting in its first three years in business, Le Manoir de Raynaudes has survived and prospered, and its owners are celebrating, with a newly-published book that weaves the story of their life-transforming move from London to France, around a substantial collection of more than 100 recipes for good things to eat and drink, all made on a regular basis at Le Manoir.
Le Manoir de Raynaudes is known for the quality of its cooking as much as for the style and elegance of its rooms, and on all but one night of the week, serves a six-course dinner menu made entirely on the premises, from the Roquefort and walnut biscuits which might accompany aperitifs, to the hand-gilded chocolates which bring dinner to a close.
Murrin, a self-proclaimed perfectionist, is responsible for the cooking and gardening, while Steggall handles front of house. It's a happy marriage of talents, supplemented with occasional assistance from their coterie of friends and neighbours, straight from French provincial central casting.
ATable in the Tarn by Orlando Murrin, with photographs by Jonathan Buckley, is published by Harper Collins (£20).
B&B rates at Le Manoir de Raynaudes are between €190 and €290 per room. Dinner is €50 (six courses) or €60 (eight-course degustation, served Saturdays only), www.raynaudes.com