If you have been reading posts here, you probably have seen what I have to say about LaCanche, the Citeaux. So I will be brief.

I am very happy with the look of the stove.

I was not crazy about how it is finished on the sides for my kind of install (free standing). I have had two service issues and they take for-e-ver to be resolved. One is that you need to be a safecracker to turn on my gas oven; they are replacing the knob today and the repairman told me it has been a problem on these stoves. Two, my electric oven shorted out for some reason and I have been without it (and its broiler) for a month.

As to your specific question about a broiler, most emphatically yes you need a broiler. There are all kinds of things you want to make that need broiling to really be done right. From something as mundane as garlic bread or london broil, to special occasion dishes like a creme brulee. Take it from someone who has been without for a while!

Yikes, Mtrdredux, you're making me very nervous. I guess we're committed to the Lacanche since our cabinets were fitted to the Lacanche specs. But...

Goudalou, the Cluny has a broiler assuming you get an electric oven on one side. The Chagny just has an independent broiling oven as well. So, if I'm understading it correctly, a Chagny will generally have two broilers.

Nutherokie,

These issues would not change my mind about LaCanche. I am so in love with its looks, it can misbehave. I always wanted a big old Aga but find them impractical (not the new ones, but then they dont have the same look) or a LaCornue but their ovens, i just do not get, they are tiny. So when I found LaCanche I was smitten. Still am.

But I am disappointed when I pay a very exorbitant price and do not get the appropriate service. I think their reply to my issue with the finish on the sides was inadequate. As for the service call, part of the delay is a mixup, and I think part of it is getting parts from France? As for the repairman telling me my model has bad oven knobs .... I mean, really? Inexcusable for a stove costing 1/10th the price.

Then again my Viking was no day at the beach, either

I've always gone weak for those huge Aga cookers, too. Of course we just had our 50th day of 100-plus temperatures yesterday and the forecast shows triple digits as far as the eye can see. So an Aga is not in my future.

As for the Lacanche issues, I agree they're inexcusable, but I suspect they know we'll suffer for beauty.

Just thought I'd mention that, despite having two broilers, I keep a large butane torch around for creme brulee.

LOL, I actually received a creme brulee "set" with ramekins, special sugars, torch, etc, some years ago. Never used it - i am not big on desserts. Or actually, more precisely, I am quite big on desserts, which is why I don't make them.

My LaCanche guy just left. He put a new part in for the knob on the gas oven. But it still takes a safecracker to turn it on and off. He says he imagines they will redesign the mechanism because no one is happy with it. No harm asking if they have done so as yours goes in to production ...

He says our electric broiler went bad because it "tripped". He doesn't know why but it seems to work ok now.

The broiler in the Chagny is actually a fully functional oven! You can bake a pie or a lasagna or anything that will fit in the space. Also works as the perfect toaster or veggie roaster. The Lacanche blog just posted about it: http://www.frenchranges.com/blog/

Wow! Alot to take in-thank you to everyone that responded. Mtnrdredux, I won't be ordering for awhile, as we haven't even settled on a builder yet, but I will defintly ask about the knobs. Nutheroki, I didn't realize that the electric oven on the Cluny had a broiler, thanks! Gastronamissa, I think you just sold me on the Chagny! I think that I would use that constantly.