Auberge des Templiers

A Sologne Posthouse in the Company of France's Serious Country Tables

The half-timbered facade of pink brick and stone on the N7 road through Boismorand reads, at first glance, like a hundred other historic French auberges. The century-old trees in the grounds, the oak beams visible through the windows, the Gien earthenware on the tables: all of it signals a particular kind of French provincial seriousness that was thriving long before the current wave of destination dining. What distinguishes Auberge des Templiers from that broader category is what happens once you sit down. The kitchen, holding a Michelin star as of 2024 and rated four radishes by the We're Smart Green Guide, operates at the intersection of classical French technique and a plant-forward sensibility that remains genuinely uncommon at this level in France.

France's fine-dining provinces have always produced a certain type of table: the inn that has fed travellers for generations, accumulating awards and a cellar of serious vintages, presiding over a regional cuisine with authority. You find versions of this at Auberge de l'Ill in Illhaeusern, at Auberge du Vieux Puits in Fontjoncouse, and at Troisgros - Le Bois sans Feuilles in Ouches. What Boismorand adds to that tradition is a location deep in the Sologne, the flat, forested hunting country south of the Loire, which has its own culinary logic: game, river fish, and a larder that rewards seasonal discipline. The Templiers has operated within that tradition for decades, and its Relais & Châteaux membership signals where it positions itself commercially and conceptually relative to peers.

The Kitchen's Position: Classical Roots, Vegetable Intelligence

Chef Kévin Stroh leads the kitchen, and the culinary direction under his tenure reflects a tension that defines serious French cooking right now: how to honour a deeply classical repertoire while responding to what guests and critics actually want to eat in the 2020s. The We're Smart four-radish rating is a meaningful credential here. We're Smart Green Guide rates restaurants globally on their use of vegetables, and four radishes places Auberge des Templiers in a tier that includes kitchens treating plant-based cooking as a structural priority, not a concession to dietary preferences. That this rating was achieved inside a seventeenth-century coaching inn with stone walls and Gien crystal is the point. The conventional logic says these two things don't coexist. The kitchen demonstrates they do.

Every menu at the Templiers offers a plant-based option by default, which in France, and particularly in a region whose culinary identity is built on game and waterfowl, represents a genuine editorial decision rather than a marketing gesture. The We're Smart recognition, awarded during a France tour specifically for this integration, confirms that the approach is substantive. Compare this to the positioning of Bras in Laguiole, which has long placed vegetables at the centre of its philosophy in another deeply rural French context, and you begin to see a pattern: France's most interesting provincial kitchens are no longer simply custodians of regional tradition but active participants in a broader conversation about what that tradition should look like.

The concise menu and tasting menu formats mirror what you find at kitchens of similar ambition: a focused selection rather than sprawling choice, designed to direct attention and allow the kitchen to source carefully. The classical technique shows in preparations that require sustained skill: pressed duck with an intense sauce incorporating pear and confit bergamot zest, and tartare of red mullet in what the Michelin assessors described as a gutsy jus. These are not simple dishes. The red mullet preparation in particular places the kitchen in conversation with coastal-trained techniques applied to Sologne ingredients, a crossover that takes confidence to execute at this standard.

The Dining Room and the Estate

The physical setting rewards attention. The seventeenth-century fabric of the building, stone walls, massive oak beams, a facade that has been receiving travellers since the coaching era, creates a context that most contemporary dining rooms have to work very hard to manufacture and mostly fail to achieve. Former guests from the early twentieth century reportedly included Mistinguett and Maurice Chevalier, details that place the inn inside French cultural history rather than simply hospitality history.

Grounds planted with century-old trees extend the experience beyond the dining room. For a Relais & Châteaux property in this price tier, the combination of architectural authenticity and cultivated grounds represents a coherent proposition: you are not paying for a contemporary design hotel but for a specific kind of settled, rooted French country house character that takes generations to accumulate.

Wine cellar has drawn specific comment from Michelin's assessors, who noted vintages capable of impressing even experienced collectors. In a region within reach of the Loire Valley's appellations, a serious cellar is an expectation rather than a surprise, but the depth implied by the Michelin description suggests a collection that extends beyond regional focus into broader French and international coverage.

Getting to Boismorand and Planning the Visit

Boismorand sits approximately two hours south of Paris by road, on the N7 in the Loiret department. This is not a casual dinner destination from the capital; it functions as an overnight or weekend proposition, which aligns with the Relais & Châteaux format and the accommodation the property offers. The address on the N7 makes it accessible by car from Paris without requiring motorway tolls if you prefer the historic route nationale. For guests combining a visit with the broader Loire Valley, Boismorand sits at the southern edge of the region, making it a natural anchor for a multi-day itinerary that might also include Assiette Champenoise in Reims to the north or a westward arc through the appellation villages.

Reservations are handled directly through the property. Contact is available at templiers@relaischateaux.com or by telephone at +33 (0)2 38 31 80 01, and the full property website at lestempliers.com carries current availability and menu information. Given the property's starred status and Relais & Châteaux membership, booking in advance is advisable, particularly for weekend tables and during the game season in autumn, when the Sologne's culinary identity is at its most pronounced.

For travellers building a broader France itinerary around serious dining, the context is worth considering. The concentration of starred provincial kitchens in France means that a table at the Templiers sits comfortably alongside visits to Flocons de Sel in Megève or AM par Alexandre Mazzia in Marseille in terms of culinary ambition and execution standard, even if the format and context differ entirely. For those whose itinerary centres on Paris, Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen and Au Crocodile in Strasbourg represent different expressions of the same French fine-dining tradition at the multi-star level.

For further planning in the area, see our full Boismorand restaurants guide, our Boismorand hotels guide, bars in Boismorand, wineries near Boismorand, and experiences in Boismorand.