Contributor’s Note: This is an excerpt from an article by R.W. Apple, Jr. of the New York Times. Before going into the hospital several weeks ago, R. W. Apple, Jr. filed this article for The New York Times. It was scheduled to appear in the Times' Travel section later in the fall, but with Mr. Apple's death on October 4, it was published on 5th October, 2006.

Restaurant Name:  Auberge du Cep à Fleurie (Rhône)

Address: Place de l’Église, FLEURIE, FRANCE; (33-4) 7404-1077;

Web URL: perso.orange.fr/mercurebeaujolais/cep.htm.

French country cooking — or bistro cooking, as its urban variant is called — deserves, but is not often accorded, a place among the world’s culinary glories beside French haute cuisine. Based on regional products, honestly handled, “unfoamed and unfused” in the words of my friend Colman Andrews, late of Saveur magazine, it is the specialty of this small restaurant on the main square of a prettily named village in Beaujolais. It is a specialty unflinchingly embraced by its proprietor, Chantal Chagny, who five years ago banished lobster and truffles from her menu and turned her back on two Michelin stars in favor of the simpler dishes she adores, like herb-crusted, perfectly fried, never-frozen frogs’ legs, crisp-edged sweetbreads, soup made of garden herbs, roast wild duck from a local river and rosy tenderloin of regional Charolais beef, France’s best.