Cafe 'overwhelmed' with customers after accidentally being awarded Michelin star

The small eatery was overwhelmed by the streams of gourmet customers keen to try the newly awarded restaurant: Google Street View

A cafe in a small rench town has been flooded with customers after it was accidentally awarded a prestigious Michelin star.

Bourges' Bouche à Oreille is a cheerful eatery which serves homemade food such as lasagna and beef bourguignon to local workmen on long tables covered with a plastic dotted tablecloth.

But gourmet customers started streaming through the doors of the local establishment following the news it had been awarded a Michelin star.

The unexpected publicity boost was the result of a mistake by the respected Michelin guide, when it announced its top tables for 2017 on its website. The Michelin star was meant for a restaurant also called Bouche à Oreille located in Boutervilliers, Essonne, about 200 kilometres north.

Véronique Jacquet, who runs the cafe, told the French newspaper Le Parisien that she had been "overwhelmed" with bookings. "I have new clients that want tables for three and four but at the same time I have my regulars. The problem is that we don’t have that much space,” she said.

TV crews and reporters descended on the small cafe to find out what the buzz was all about and Ms Jacquet said that when she told her Parisian son what had happened, he could not stop laughing.

The more up-market Bouche à Oreille offers customers choice from a €48 (£41) menu, which includes calf’s brain, lobster flan, chocolate pear crisp and a glass of champagne all served on a double tablecloth laid table.

Claire Dorland-Clauzel, a director at Michelin told Le Parisien: “This is a technical mistake on a map. We have apologised to both establishments and we are sorry to have misled our clients.”