Collobrières : welcome to Bastide de la Cabrière
© François Chemel
Aristocrat, rugby player, farmer, goat breeder and poet, Loïc de Saleneuve has a warm welcome for you in his corner of Paradise …
It sometimes happens that strangers feel more attached to the soul of place than those who were born there. This is something that might be said of Loïc de Saleneuve and his wife, Andrée-Cécile, who chose to leave their native Auvergne in the 1970s, and settle in the heart of the Maures massif, in a tiny, out of the way valley close to Collobrières. On an abandoned farm of 17 hectares, with no running water and no electricity. "I arrived here with my little Citroen 2CV and my books, and started to breed goats, reading up on the subject and receiving advice from friends who had turned to farming in the wake of 1968." Thirty five years later, Loïc and his wife have covered a lot of ground. Their 50 goats are perfectly adapted to the area, and produce delicious cheeses, on sale at the Saint Tropez market.ndus au marché de Saint-Tropez .
Nothing is lost, all is transformed
In La Cabrière, whey goes to feed the pigs, who in turn are transformed into pâté, black pudding and sausages; goat manure is used to fertilise the vegetable garden at the end of the little valley. The Saleneuves cultivate all sorts of red fruit on a hectare of land, all organic: garden strawberries, woodland strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, then sold on the market or turned into jam. Bed and breakfast guests in one of the five rooms with a view (onto the vegetable garden !) with a "three ears of corn" rating, also get to enjoy their vegetables. "We bring them a platter of farm produce with some cheese, cold meats and sausage, lovely tomatoes and seasonal fruits. They usually enjoy it so much that they don't go out afterwards. We sometimes cook for our guests, but we need to get along well with them!"
The menu features delicious homemade farm cooking, prepared by Andrée-Cécile and Loïc, who both adore cooking: mixed cheese tart, goat's cheese in puff pastry, caillette (pork and liver paté) salad, sauté of pork with courgettes, honey roasted leg of kid, chestnut cake and fruit crumble. In the midst of the nettles, wild flowers, chestnut trees, birds, occasional pieces of farm machinery and nectar-gathering bees, La Cabrière is a perfectly balanced ecosystem, and should be respected. A respect repaid a hundredfold by the inhabitants of La Bastide.
Contact us
La Bastide de la Cabrière
Route de Gonfaron (à 6 km de Collobrières)
83610 Collobrières
(0033) (0)4 94 48 04 31
Room from 75 to 125 €.
E-mail contact 
Website
See the access map
Markets in the Maures country, symbols of the eternal Provence
Discover
A recipe by Andrée-Cécile de Saleneuve
Discover
Topic : Gastronomy and accomodation
Published on : 2008/11/13
Tags : collobrieres gonfaron welcome to bastide cabriere
