Yvon LEBAILLY

Sommelier : 1 restaurant

Presentation

Born into a blue-collar family (his father was a bricklayer, his mother a weaver), nothing predisposed Yvon Lebailly to the restaurant business. " In secondary school, I wasn't exactly what you'd call a good student," recalls the sommelier. "I went to Granville to take a CAP (vocational training certificate) in cooking, but I was quickly directed towards the dining room, where I felt more at home."

Yvon Lebailly then moved on to a series of seasons, including one as chef de rang at the Manoir du Lys in Bagnoles-de-l'Orne, where he met his future wife, Stéphanie, daughter of owners Paul and Marie-France Quinton. After some enriching experiences at Château de Divonne, with MOF Michel De Matteis, and at Jacques Hébert in Paris, Yvon Lebailly and his wife crossed the Atlantic to work for a few months in several breweries in Manhattan, New York. "It was a period of our lives that we loved. We didn't have a green card, but we had no trouble finding jobs!"

On his return to France, this time to Manoir du Lys with his brother-in-law Franck Quinton, Yvon Lebailly decided to perfect his sommelier skills. "During my vacations, I went several times to Philippe Faure-Brac for training courses. I traveled a lot, visited vineyards and made lots of friends, with a penchant for Loire and Languedoc wines. However, in the 1990s, selling Barral to customers in Orléans was no easy task!

Seriously ill during the Covid-19 pandemic, Yvon Lebailly admits to visiting vineyards less frequently today. "Gault&Millau awarded him the Sommelier Normandie 2023 trophy .

F. T.