Augustine – La Table du Château – dining inside a rebuilt country house

Forty-five minutes north of Paris, at the end of an avenue lined with century-old oak and chestnut trees, the Château de Maffliers stands inside a park of some thirty-three hectares on the edge of the Forêt de l'Isle-Adam. Augustine – La Table du Château occupies the ground floor of this nineteenth-century house, a dining room where original mouldings and panelling meet a décor reworked by designer Stella Cadente after fire gutted much of the roof in April 2020 and closed the estate for two years. The address takes its name from a woman who once lived in the house, and its menu from Frédéric Vardon, the chef behind Paris's Le 39V, which held a MICHELIN star from 2012 to 2018, who wrote the concept here: a classic French table built on sharing, a carving trolley and recipes carried from one generation to the next. The MICHELIN Guide lists Augustine among its selected addresses in Île-de-France, proof that a serious kitchen sits behind the château's grand façade.

01The room and the setting

The château that houses Augustine is a nineteenth-century house that once welcomed Honoré de Balzac and Madame de Staël, reached down an avenue of century-old oaks and chestnuts inside a park bordering the Forêt de l'Isle-Adam.

The whole domain closed its doors in April 2020 after a fire tore through the roof during restoration work, and reopened only after two years of reconstruction, with the bar and brasserie first, in January 2022, and Augustine following that spring. Decorator Stella Cadente reworked the ground-floor rooms, the bar and the eight guest bedrooms upstairs, setting classical mouldings and old panelling against a more playful, dream-inspired world of colour.

02The chef

Augustine's menu was written by Frédéric Vardon, who trained in the kitchens of Alain Chapel and Alain Ducasse before opening Le 39V on Paris's avenue George V in 2010; that address was distinguished with a MICHELIN star from 2012 to 2018.

Insider tip

Closed Mon–Wed; dinner only Thursdays; book via the restaurant's own website.

Day to day, the stoves at Maffliers are run by chef Ulysse Mérigaud, who previously worked alongside Vardon at Le 39V before taking charge of the kitchen here.

03The cooking

In the dining room, Augustine serves what its own description calls a bistronomic cuisine, built around local produce and a spirit of sharing rather than technical display.

A traditional game table, laid for carving meat, poultry and fish at the guest's table, stands as the room's centrepiece, and the pâté en croûte or snails that open many meals are often followed by one of the house's signature dishes: filet de bœuf Wellington with sauce périgourdine, served for two.

04What to order

On the carte read in October 2026, start with the œuf cocotte aux morilles, served with a salted-butter dipping stick (19 EUR), or the seasonal pâté en croûte made by charcutier Olivier Brosset (19 EUR). Among the mains, cabillaud demi-sel comes with French peas and wild garlic (31 EUR), and filet de bœuf au poivre is plated with pommes Darphin (44 EUR); to share, there is a slow-roast agneau de lait with spring vegetables (32 EUR per person). To finish, the gâteau au chocolat de Mamie Augustine (15 EUR) and the île flottante with praline cream (16 EUR) both sit on the dessert list.

05When to go and booking

Augustine keeps a short working week: closed Monday to Wednesday, dinner only on Thursdays from 19:30 to 21:30, lunch and dinner on Friday and Saturday, and lunch only on Sundays, according to the restaurant's own site read in October 2026. Tables are booked directly through the restaurant's website.

06The neighbourhood

Augustine sits inside the wider Domaine de Maffliers, a thirty-three-hectare estate with its own stables and the chance to ride on the grounds. Seven further cottages, the AbriChics, occupy the château's former stables and outbuildings for guests who want a self-contained stay nearby. The whole estate, run under the Demeures de Campagne brand, lies some forty-five minutes north of Paris — close enough for a lunch escape, far enough to feel like open country.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.