Autumn, the other beautiful season at Coq aux Champs

Our times are searching for their bearings. They hesitate, they question, but they move forward. Curious, sometimes playful, they long for a sense of meaning that reassures without holding them back, and willingly turn towards those who carve out a path and illuminate it with a gentle light rather than a dazzling one. Among the pleasures offered to us, art remains one of the most faithful, and the art of the table is certainly no exception.

In this art of taste, Coq aux Champs establishes itself with a quiet sense of évidence. It is a major destination, owing nothing to noise and everything to precision. Here, Walloon gastronomy reveals itself in its deepest, most accomplished and most sincere form. And autumn is when it perhaps expresses itself best.

There is something about autumn in the Condroz that calls for slowness. The light becomes lower and more golden. The air carries the scent of damp earth, leaves and wood. Between Huy and Marche, Coq aux Champs seems to have been made for this season too. You enter as though stepping into a warm interior, surrounded by blond wood, silky fabrics and the silence of the fields beyond the windows. Christophe and Catherine Pauly have been welcoming guests here for more than twenty years, and the house has perhaps never seemed so perfectly in tune with its landscape as it does during these October weeks.

Christophe Pauly’s cuisine, Michelin-starred for many years now, is a cuisine to be experienced and felt. It does not seek to impress, but to touch. Precise cooking, melting textures, deep and silky sauces. A cuisine that goes straight to pleasure. His cooking envelops the Being, the one that I am.

From iodine to the forest floor

The meal begins with the gentle warmth of a brioche torn apart with the fingertips, followed by a carefully crafted soup that warms from within. The marinated langoustine offers the first emotion: the flesh is supple and delicate, the sour cream caresses, the cucumber refreshes, the smoked eel brings roundness, while Osciètre caviar bursts into salty pearls on the tongue.

The Dieppe scallops, barely warmed through, have that almost satin-like texture that yields beneath the teeth. Raw cream wraps around them, lemon balm brings a citrus note, oyster tartare extends the maritime salinity, while radish shavings add a delicate crunch. Line-caught sea bass, cut into fine strips, rests on melting cabbage, coated in a foamy shellfish butter flavoured with vin jaune. Ginger brings a spark, seaweed recalls the ocean, and we take our time.

Then the forest takes over. The lobster, its firm, sweet flesh meeting the crispness of confit bacon, is surrounded by woodsy porcini mushrooms, captivating autumn truffle, fresh hazelnuts and roasted Amalfi lemon, whose candied bitterness lifts the whole dish. Then comes the ‘Chasseurs belges’ venison, roasted over a wood fire. Its rosy flesh still carries the caress of the flame, while the autumn fruits and vegetables served alongside it, in the spirit of a contemporary civet, create a deep, almost enveloping dish.

‘Summer milk’ Comté, prepared with morels and vin jaune, offers a broad, rounded indulgence before being reinvented as a frozen creation with sobacha and its roasted notes. The aged cheese then awaits those who wish to extend the moment.

Sweetness, close to the skin

The Solliès fig, ripe and fleshy, is paired with hibiscus, cinnamon and cardamom, warm spices that already carry the scent of winter evenings. Peps refreshes the palate, the violet sweet unfolds its floral perfume, and the still-warm ‘Signature Christophe Pauly’ madeleine brings the meal to a close with pure comfort.

Outside, the autumn air has grown cooler. You close the door of Coq aux Champs with that benevolent warmth of tables where you felt expected, carrying with you the slight regret of leaving a table at which time passed so beautifully. And already, the desire to return slips into your pocket along with your coat. Why not before autumn takes its final bow.

LD · Eating · october 2026