Since the end of August, the hotel-restaurant and spa of the Michelin-starred chef Arnaud Viel has welcomed guests in a decor entirely redone around woven willow. Autumn is the season for a stop in Argentan, less than two hours from Paris, and for exploring the Orne through its producers.
Less than an hour and a half from Deauville, at the gateway to the Pays d’Auge, La Renaissance has changed its face. Arnaud Viel and his wife Cécilia have received guests there since the end of August in a new atmosphere, born of the work of the art basket-maker Yann-Marie Coulombez, in collaboration with the interior design agency Annabelle Fesquet.
The willow strands, grown in France, were planted directly on site before being woven into intimate nests, true works of art that dress the dining rooms. The chef finds in them a childhood memory: “Her artistic work with wicker, a natural material, matches the spirit of the restaurant and of the region very well. It completely echoes my childhood memories, when I watched my grandfather weave wicker to make weirs on the river.”
Yann-Marie Coulombez describes her approach in these terms: “I like to intertwine art and material, the beautiful and the useful, in order to create bridges between the human and the plant world. I see plants as a common language, a thread running through generations, cultures and sensibilities.”
Seasonal cooking guided by the produce
Arnaud Viel champions a legible cuisine, lifted by a few surprises, that follows the season. It is the produce that starts the work, paired with techniques chosen to show all its facets. Across the menu, lentils from the Perche, salmon from Isigny-sur-Mer, buckwheat, cider or a cheese from Clécy tell the story of the region.
The chef also buys fruit and vegetables from the integration association Jardins dans la ville, and offers an entirely plant-based menu. His plating, rigorous, often starts from a drawing by his own hand. It does not seek effect for social media: the attention stays on taste, harmony and the fragile balances of a plate.
Menus range from €49 at lunch to €89, €99, €130 and €160. The plant-based menu is offered at €120.
The Orne beyond the table
A stay with Arnaud Viel also opens onto the Normandy of hedged farmland, apple trees and horses. The chef and his wife direct their guests to good addresses in the surrounding area: an artisanal cheese dairy in Camembert, a cider and calvados producer in the Pays d’Auge, a saffron grower, yuzu orchards.
In Argentan, the Château des Ducs can be visited, as can the Fernand Léger museum, recently reopened. Equestrian enthusiasts will continue to the Haras national du Pin, founded in 1730 and nicknamed the Versailles of the horse.
La Renaissance is located at 20 avenue de la 2e DB, in Argentan.
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