Audrey Sanchez and Michaël Vasseur cultivate a family and friendly spirit at La Baraquita in Le Rozier

Bonne humeur et convivialité à la Baraquita. Midi libre – Pauline Chaliez

Le couple tient deux établissements au Rozier, dont la guinguette, ouverte uniquement l'été.

Audrey Sanchez and her partner Michaël Vasseur are both managers of La Baraquita, a guinguette set up in Le Rozier since June 2023. Born in 1981, Audrey Sanchez worked for a long time in ski resorts near Ax-les-Thermes. She returned to train to obtain a BTS in management assistant. Now the mother of a 20-year-old daughter, it was the need to provide for both of their needs at the time, in a sustainable way, that pushed her towards catering. “I came here for food reasons. I met my partner who is a chef and I discovered this world which I really liked. I like to please people“, she confides.

Arrived in Boyne in 2014

The couple arrived in the region in 2014 following a professional opportunity, namely the management of the Grand Hotel in Boyne, which they managed for five years. Following the sale of the hotel, Audrey Sanchez returned to work as a management assistant before receiving an interesting offer: “The owners of La Baraquita were creating it and offered me the management. With my partner, we created a company and accepted. These are encounters that have brought me to where I am today. We opened on June 1, 2023."

"We were able to organize recruitment as best we could"

If the first season was complicated due to a lack of organization linked to setting up the activity in June at short notice, Audrey Sanchez explains: "We learned from our mistakes. This season, we were able to organize recruitment as best we could by doing it in advance, starting this winter, and we were able to open on May 1st. I have two people in the kitchen, three in service with me and one in the dishwasher."Since June 15 and until September 15, La Baraquita is open every day from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. “However, we are very dependent on the weather conditions even though we have a marquee”, specifies the manager.

A journey from Ariège to Aveyron

Audrey Sanchez lived in Ariège and Montpellier, she did not know the Tarn gorges at all until she discovered them thanks to her partner who had already come to work there for a few seasons. “I followed him on the adventure. I fell in love with the region, you feel privileged when you live here. Currently, I work a lot but otherwise I am passionate about horse riding. I love animals and walking around here. I love Spain, we go there every year. I have Spanish origins, it's like a return to my roots and close to my family. My mother was born in Barcelona and my father in the province of Murcia, between Valencia and Andalusia.”

“We offer simple, fairly traditional cuisine, such as trout from the Rozier fish farm, burgers whose meat comes from organic farms in Lozère, omelettes, dishes such as sausage and chips or sausage and aligot, etc. We have a family clientele who appreciate the fact that the dishes are affordable. I work with local products for the cuisine but also for the wine list, which comes from local producers. It's qualitative and affordable." 

"Spirit of relaxation and conviviality"'

Audrey Sanchez values ​​a "spirit of relaxation" and "conviviality to the maximum" in this warm place that she has shaped in her image: “Children play around the tables, dogs trot near them, customers are often barefoot in the grass. We take our time with each one, that's the spirit in which I like to work.”. Michaël Vasseur, her partner, is the current chef at Gévaudan, an establishment they also manage, located just across from La Baraquita. They would like to open it year-round so that locals have a place to meet during the winter: “Living in Le Rozier, we have clearly noticed that there is a real demand”, confides Audrey Sanchez.

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