A Visit to Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir or A Culinary and Architectural Gesamtkunstwerk

Abstract

A dead straight stone path, luxuriantly fringed with lavender, wraps us in bewitching fragrance and leads us to an imposing English 15th century country house: the restaurant and hotel Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, just outside Oxford. Raymond Blanc, my host, welcomes us cordially in his tiny, unassuming office in the attic of the extension, which is not immediately recognisable as such at first, as its architectural language sticks very close to that of the existing building. Raymond Blanc talks enthusiastically for almost two hours about his childhood in a little village near Besançon, about his personal background, his vision, his house. And almost in passing this explains how his life’s work came into being: the idyllic Gesamtkunstwerk — total work of art — that is Le Manoir.