We've had our Volnay for a good while now (maybe 16 months or so) and love it. Everything works quite well. I agree that it can be difficult to maintain a very low simmer on a smaller pot, but we've done fine with larger ones. I guess our main complaint is with the "convection only" oven. My wife does a lot of baking and she's had a lot of adjusting to do to get things to come out correctly. On the other hand, it works wonderfully for roasting and broiling. We find the hot cupboard to be great at keeping things warm before serving but haven't put anything in for any extended period of time. I would assume that excessive drying might be a problem if you left anything in there for very long. Another interesting point: When we had it installed, the guy who put it in had never seen a Lacanche before. He was recommended by a local high end appliance firm, though, and he's installed a lot of expensive items in kitchens. He was very impressed with the build quality, the simplicity of the design, and the ease of cleaning for the range top. We didn't do any comparisons to the Aga 6-4, so I can't comment on how the Lacanche would stack up to it. Anyway, good luck with your decision!

Thanks Andrea. It will certainly be deeper than the cabs I have, one side is actually not even going to have a cabinet. This may sound crazy, but this is my "temporary" kitchen. We anticipate a significant remodel/addition in about a year or so, at which time I'll design or buy a spacer for her permanent home. In the meantime, I went to Home Depot and found a nice gutter that I can use for a spacer. I'll drill a few holes in it to make sure there is sufficient ventilation.

cinamom: I had never noticed the sharp edges you mentioned but just went and looked. I assume it's the top of the two brackets that hold the front panel onto the drawer base. Gasket might work. Crude solution: take some vice grips and bend the top corner so that the "point" rests against the front panel. Haven't done it but seems like it would work. We went around and around the oven issue as well. We had initially spec'd a 48'' range, and wanted a warming cabinet. That left only a few options and we ended up with the 55'' Cluny 1400. The ovens are indeed small, though prior discussions on earlier threads certainly show that you can get more into them than you might think. Still, I hedged our bets as you did, and installed a single Miele convection oven. I love the Miele. It's kind of the diametric opposite of the Lacanche--ultra high tech, with touch screen, Magic Chef, sensor probe, built in rotisserie, etc. It's spacious and cooks well. I honestly use it as our primary oven: it's big, it has a light (!), and the touch screens are very easy to navigate. Also, it's self cleaning and I'm totally lazy and would rather run that every month or two than attack the Lacanche with a can of Easy Off. To me it's the best of all worlds: a big convection for the turkey, and two small ovens so that for those big occasions (like the upcoming Thanksgiving cookathon) I'll be able to bake in all three. I would in all honesty be less than totally satisfied if all I had were the two LC ovens, mainly for the lack of convection and the inability to cook multiple sheets of cookies etc. Overall I love the LC and it has not yet failed to draw admiring comments from those who've seen it. It cooks wonderfully and I am very happy we decided on this splurge. Hope you take the leap too.

Unless you're cooking moose, It's entirely unlikely that you'd ever need an oven bigger than the ovens on a Cluny range. The proverbial 25 pound turkey will fit into a Cluny with room to spare. (Do you actually know anyone who has ever cooked a 25 pound turkey?) But if you're really worried about it, you might also consider the Lacanche Volnay or Vougeot models. Both have larger ovens in the same footprint as the Cluny.