I’d expected a restaurant that served subsidised meals for construction workers – les repas ouvriers – to be something like a British transport caff, all greasy linoleum and reeking of lard and bacon. But this is the Dordogne, France. Auberge d’Imbé exudes homey comfort, featuring white napery and charming service, at just €13 a head for a five-course meal that includes wine.

Roy and I had arrived in the Renault Twingo at his sister Lyndsay’s house in Saint-Geniés in time for Friday lunch. It’s a two-hour drive from Moissac, and we would have been earlier had we not been faced with a route barrée and a deviation, complete with signs.

Deviant Driving

In a move not without precedent, Roy refused to take the suggested deviation, deciding instead to press ahead. Once we got to the actually blockade, he was reluctantly persuaded not to simply drive around it and carry on, but instead to consult the map book and forge an alternative route through deepest, darkest Dordogne.  Highly successfully, it must be said – if I want to live.

Unlike the rest of the luncheon party, the two of us hadn’t done much to deserve a worker’s repast.  Lynt and John’s good friends Sarah and Tim, visiting from England, had spent the past few days helping to clear vegetation, sanding and oiling the upstairs terrace, scrubbing the swimming pool and generally earning their keep. As we arrived, Tim and John emerged victoriously from the dusty loft where they’d been rewiring the lighting to one of the bedrooms.

(For more on their wonderful house, click here to check out my post from our last visit, in September 2017.)

There’s a lot about workers’ restaurant vouchers on the internet, but it’s technical, complicated and bureaucratically boring. I gather, however, that construction (and other?) workers who cannot get back to their normal place of work for lunch are entitled to restaurant luncheon vouchers at participating eateries. The value seems to vary according to the location, collective agreements and more.

So, what was for lunch?

Wine, of course – a quarter litre each included in the price.

First course: A tureen to share of vegetable soup topped with bread, delicious

Second course: Individual cheese and leek tarts (without the tart, explained the waiter, meaning no pastry), again delicious

Main course: Chicken leg and mashed potato, hot and tasty

Cheese: Amazingly generous chunks of Roquefort, Saint-Nectaire and Brie

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Dessert: Coffee crème – both missable and unphotogenic