Destination: France : Cardinal Virtues : A Provence hotel’s charm and cuisine inspire a standard

This week we introduce a new feature profiling hotels with special appeal--based on exceptional service, distinctive character and unforgettable charm. Or one unique feature--historic significance, a great concierge, a remarkable location.

A dense canopy of sycamores shades one side of the old, three-story stone building. Ivy scrambles up the walls, and along the structure’s side, rambunctious rose bushes, sprawling in every direction, illuminate the stone with glowing pink and red. Across a narrow lane, the dark green Rhone river courses past with a fluvial swoosh.

The building, which houses an establishment called the Hostellerie La Cardinale, is not a recognized historical landmark, but for the luxury-minded traveler, it might well be considered something of a shrine: It was here, 40 years ago, that the world’s most glamorous and exclusive association of top-quality hotels and restaurants, Relais & Chateaux, was born.

France today is crisscrossed by a network of excellent autoroutes or toll expressways. Clean and well-equipped with gas stations and roadside restaurants (and even hotels), these roads make it possible to travel long distances quickly and in at least relative comfort. Even a comparatively pokey American driver can average at least 60 m.p.h., with rest stops figured in. That means, for instance, that it would be possible to get all the way from Paris down to Nice, on the Cote d’Azur, in nine hours or so--if you wanted to spend the whole day driving.

But before the expressways were built, the journey along the main road (or Route Nationale) would have taken any sane driver at least two days if not three, with overnight stops as necessary along the way. Though it was optimistically dubbed la route du bonheur (“route of happiness”), the section of the road along the southern Rhone, with Provence on one side and the Ardeche on the other, was a grueling thoroughfare. It was a three-lane road, with one lane in each direction and a sort of free-for-all passing lane (sometimes called “the suicide lane”) in the middle. Poplar trees lined much of the route, leaving little room for driver error on the outside.

One good thing about the route was that there were a number of attractive, restful small hotels along its path, many of them ancient inns or stagecoach stops--relays, or relais in French. One of these hotels, in the village of Baix (pronounced somewhere between “bakes” and “becks”), about 20 miles south of Valence (and roughly 350 miles south of Paris), was the Hostellerie La Cardinale. Originally a nobleman’s manor, the house hosted the infamous Cardinal Richelieu in 1642--hence its name. (Actually, Richelieu was Le Cardinal; La Cardinale means a kind of red-blossomed flower that grows locally. The oblique reference to the notorious churchman, though, is intentional.)

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Early in this century, the place was converted to a five-room roadside inn, and in July, 1954, its owners, Marcel and Nelly Tilloy, had the idea of creating an association of fellow innkeepers from along the Route Nationale. They signed up seven other establishments and dubbed the organization, romantically enough, “Relais Compagne”--country stagecoach stops. This was not a chain, in the sense of a collection of properties under common ownership, but rather a voluntary association of places that agreed to live up to common (high) standards, and to help promote fellow members. The group was an immediate success--and in two years had grown to about 25 member hotels all over France.

So much for the Relais. The Chateaux part came along a bit later. In 1962, inspired by the success of Relais de Campagne, Raymond Thuillier (legendary owner/chef of the acclaimed Oustau de Baumaniere in Les Baux-de-Provence) and an associate, Rene Traversac, founded a rival group called Chateaux-Hotels. It, too, was a success, and for more than a decade the two organizations flourished side by side.

The Tilloys retained ownership of the Hostellerie La Cardinale until the mid-1970s, but in 1971, Marcel Tilloy relinquished directorship of the ever-growing Relais group to another hotelier, Joseph Olivereau. The following year, Olivereau and famed chef Pierre Troisgros founded a restaurant-only offshoot of Relais de Campagne, called Relais Gourmands. In 1975, Relais de Campagne, Relais Gourmands and the rival Chateaux-Hotels merged to form, yes, Relais & Chateaux.

Today, in its 40th anniversary year, the organization boasts some 410 members all over the world. The sole representative of the group in Los Angeles is a restaurant, L’Orangerie. The nearest hotels are the San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara and Rancho Valencia in Rancho Santa Fe.

The organization likes to say that it includes only establishments of the highest quality on its roster, and that it judges quality by “five C’s” (which work both in French and English)--character, calm, charm, courtesy and cuisine. Judged on that basis, the birthplace of Relais & Chateaux, the Hostellerie La Cardinale, remains a paradigm.

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When I arrived at the place one afternoon last May, I parked under one of those aforementioned sycamores, gazed for a moment at the Rhone, then climbed a flight of stone steps and walked into a warmly furnished reception area full of fresh cut flowers. When I learned that I wouldn’t be staying in this main house but rather in an annex in another location, I was disappointed--and, frankly, I feared I was being the victim of a kind of bait-and-switch operation (show the American the nice old house, then shunt him off to the apartment block down the street).

I couldn’t have been more grievously mistaken. The annex, called La Residence, is a former private estate about two miles away, on the other side of Baix, which was purchased and converted into guest rooms by the Tilloys in the 1960s. La Residence consists of two large two-level houses made of rough-cut beige stone, with tile roofs and lacquered beige shutters. Beyond them, back toward the town, stretch acres of lush lawn surrounded by patches of intense green woods.

My room was the usual Relais & Chateaux mix of period charm (with Empire furnishings and walls covered in chartreuse fabric and framed in white tracery) and up-to-date facilities, including a minibar, a TV with cable channels in four languages (including English) and a large bathroom well stocked with fragrant Roger & Gallet toiletries. As for calm, it must be admitted that the hum of the nearby Route Nationale could be heard across the rolling grass-covered hillocks, and that the sounds of passing trains--a railway line runs through one side of Baix--occasionally rumbled through the atmosphere. On the other hand, at night, after a good dinner, with the shutters closed, all was silent, and I slept superbly.

And the dinner--served in the main hotel building back on the Rhone, in a handsome multi-room dining area with red tile floors and whitewashed walls hung with antique farm implements--was very good indeed (despite the attitude of a particularly supercilious and inefficient maitre’ d). La Cardinale always has had a reputation for fine food. The chef is young Eric Sapet, a veteran of Jamin, Jacques Cagna and the Tour d’Argent in Paris, and he has been awarded a star from Michelin.

The restaurant, it must be said, is quite expensive: Virtually every appetizer and main course is priced between $28 and $32; add dessert, a bottle of good but not extravagant wine, and mineral water and coffee, and the bill for two can easily top $200. I spent half that on a meal of flavorful local trout, boned and butterflied and served with pureed peas, morel mushrooms and bacon, followed by delicious Provencal baby lamb with mashed fennel and potatoes, a selection of perfect regional goat cheeses and a bottle of mediocre St-Joseph Rouge.

On the other hand, there is an excellent example here of that great French tradition, the prix-fixe (fixed price) menu. This offered the night I was there fresh sardines stuffed with Swiss chard, a saute of new potatoes with asparagus and baby carrots, farm-raised chicken stewed with morels and rhubarb sorbet with wild strawberries, for only $35 per person (not including wine). Relais & Chateaux quality never comes cheap, but it’s so indulgently enjoyable that it seems almost like a bargain.

GUIDEBOOK: Chez La Cardinale

Getting there: The Hostellerie La Cardinale is on the road designated as N-86, off the A-7 expressway, about 350 miles south of Paris and approximately halfway between Valence and Montelimar. Take the L’Oriol exit and follow signs toward Privas. Past the village of Le Pouzin, follow signs to Cruas-Le Teil. When you reach Baix, don’t turn at the sign for La Residence, but continue into the village and watch for the sign for La Cardinale.

Staying there: Between its two facilities, La Cardinale has 10 rooms, priced from about $135 to $190 per night, and five suites, priced from about $230 to $330 per night. Breakfast is extra, at about $18 per person--but it is quite extraordinary.(See main story for meal prices.) For reservations: Hostellerie La Cardinale, Quai du Rhone, 07210 Baix, France, tel. 011-33-75-85-80-40, fax 011-33-75-85-82-07.