La Marmite, Bandol

It was our second time there, and we chose the same menus except for desert, they don't have my beloved creme brulee anymore.

We were served 3 small glasses for apero, red bell pepper puree sauce, tapenade and a artichoke puree sauce.

The oysters were big and served with red vinegar sauce. The fish soup good as last time. Although the group at a table next to us asked what was served with the soup as it looked as mayonnaise, but it was la rouille.

The taureau was exactly the same, very good. La bleu au safran was served in a nice bowl, however this time the variation was a different fish, artichoke, and the sauce looked whiter. The mussels and gambas were perfectly cooked and tasty with the sauce. Not sure why they chose this particular fish (probably the fish of the day), but that sort of fish is very difficult to keep in one piece and make it to taste something. Some fish is tasteless unless you pan fry it in flour. Since this time the vegetables were fenouil, potato and artichoke, I guess the sauce had to be more delicate, and so I didn't taste much garlic. It tasted more like a fine cuisine refined plate, and less like a Provencal dish which I enjoyed last time.

For desert I chose croustillant au chocolat which was excellent an my husband had a panacotta very good too, but he thought my desert was more delicious. Our son with traditional steak hache and fries followed by an ice cream with cassis and strawberry (strange combination, but great for him).

The prices increased to 25E for the menus, but the choices are good. A great meal. I hope returning there if are to go to Bandol, which I think we will.

Le Lion d'Or, St Geniez d'Olt

This was our break stop at St Geniez d'Olt enroute to Gorges du Tarn drive and our next destination Millau. The restaurant is part of a hotel, but offered good menues and the restaurant terrace filled up at lunch. As appetizer it was a jam farci de salade russe with a green salad, very tasty. Then saucisse aligot. The portions were generous and I couldn't finish my aligot although it was delicious. All accompanied by a good rose wine. Creme brulee as a desert. The menus were only 15E and the child menu 8E.

Very affordable good restaurant.

La Table du Marais, Grolejac

This is a nice restaurant on the road between Grolejac and our camping. It has african decorations and music, the ambiance and the setting are pleasant. You have to reserve to get to eat inside a case (african style open gazebo). Otherwise they have a terrasse too. The setting is on a small lake and they have a corner for kids to play in the garden.

I ordered a duck confit and my husband too but in a menu with salade de gesiers.

His salad was good. My duck was a bit dry inside. His duck was a bigger piece and was better. It wasn't grilled on the outside but just left facon campagne. Everything that came with duck was very tasty and good. The cabbage, the potatoes, the tomato. We weren't served at the same time the main, but it was ok, I waited a bit. The personnel was smiling and very nice otherwise.

Les Pierres Rouges, Collonges la Rouge

This is a very good restaurant in a relatively touristy location.

I chose charcuterie platter and duck confit and my husband saw the gesiers salad, so he decided to try, and duck confit as well.

For the kids they had saussage with pommes dauphines. I asked if they could change for fries to be on the safe side. It caused some confusion in the kitchen although on the menu it was specified a choice garniture. The confusion possibly came from the owner's kid helping there. We had to re ask for a carraffe d'eau and wine. His mother was distracted while serving us. In any case the food was excellent. My platter was big and with a good sampling of charcuterie.

The duck confit was perfectly cooked: tender on the inside and crisp skin. So far, it was the best duck we had in this area. The plates were big with a lot of pommes dauphines, ratatouille, salad and onion confit. I couldn't finish mines as we had another hour of driving and I had to indicate directions to my husband. All accompanied by a good rose wine. Everything for about 53E.

Le Coin des Halles

This restaurant is located in an old house very close to Langeais castle. A big group touring the region was in the same room with us and as we sat the guide apologized for noise they would be making. I had no problem with this and answered her with a smile that we could be noisy too. In any case they weren't too loud (these were French tourists) and we could appreciate our meal.

My choice was Royale de foie gras with cantaloup and foie gras pieces nice and good. My husband decided to try asperges blanches (white sparagus) with oeuf poche and delicate sauce, on my recommendation as this is the regional specialty. His apetizer was very good. Then we both continued with lamb shoulder, perfectly cooked and tender served on couscous and caviar d'aubergines sauce. Accompanied by a rose wine.

Our son's appetizer was cured ham, followed by chicken and fries, and an ice cream. Very good restaurant.

Barbacane, Montreuil-Bellay

We walked around the castle a bit before choosing this brasserie facing the chateau.

The castle was closed as the television was filming a show there. In any case I wasn't sure it was worth 9E entrance fees.

I had duck parmentier and my husband a magret with cheries sauce. The parmentier was very simply presented but was delicious.

The magret was good, although I wasn't convinced by duck cherries combination. Fortunately the sauce was mainly on the side. I just loved the vegetable carpacio, it was very nice and very tasty. So good, I purchased a tool to make thin carpaccio slices later during our trip. The potatoe was delicious. The cheese plate consisted of 2 cheese pieces: 1 camembert and the other one a chevre. It was enough as the mains were big. Our son was happy with a pizza margarita, which unlike italian version was served with ham and was good too.

Tablapizza Creteil, Paris

We were invited to this restaurant by our friends living in Paris. It has a nice setting and good kid's menu for only 5E. Menu choices are affordable, however I didn't want to have too much bread and pizza, and opted for a lighter meal of a salad. Finally all four of us decided on salade fermiere. The kids had pizza. We all enjoyed the palette du sud with 5 different sauces and tapenades and good bread. The pizzas looked good. The salad was very big, but I found it very expensive for what you have, mainly vegetables, some chicken, egg and a slice of jambon du pays. I also found the salad quite tasteless and had to add some spicy oil on it. This could have been the same salad except cured ham as in Montreal, so nothing special. The good thing was the kid menu and at the end they made a doggy bag. It is an affordable restaurant with family atmosphere and serving affordable meals at noon as it is surrounded by companies.

To us it was more meeting our friends than a gastronomic experience and we had a nice time there.

Le Saint Jean, Montmartre, Paris

After visiting the Musee de l'air et de l'espace for more than 4 hours at le Bourget airport, we took the bus and the metro to Abbesses. The stairs are endless at that station to get up to Montmartre, and you recognize the tourists quickly, as none of us knew to take the elevator. Once at the top we understood why some people were waiting for the elevator, it is worth it.

As we exited the metro we were assaulted at once by people supposedly with petitions, one of the scams I've read about on travel forums. But no luck for them. It started raining and we ran to the closest cafe le Saint Jean. Luckily we took the last spot at the covered terrace outside with great for people watching at very typical Montmartre street, rue des Abbesses. The poor waiter was overwhelmed as many people arrived at once because of the rain. He apologized several times during our meal as he couldn't take care of everyone at once, and of resulting delay. But we weren't in a hurry and just soaked the Montmartre atmosphere, delightful.

The menu on ardoise was good with typical dishes and I hesitated between a duck confit, bavette a l'echalotte, but finally decided on a croque madame, idem for my husband and our son chose a croque monsieur. With a half of red wine. The croques came beautifully presented with a salad and fries and were delicious.

All for about 40E and we spent a very relaxing couple of hours.

Chez Papa, Paris, 2nd

This was our first meal in Paris this year on arrival to our hotel, we dropped our bags into our room and walked to Chez Papa with a stop at the Galeries Viviennes toy store called Si tu veux. It is a store from other times with wooden and old fashion toys. The prices are not cheap.

Anyway, we walked to the restaurant and chose a table on the terrasse. The wind became quite cold but we didn't want to walk back to our hotel.

I have ordered Salade Boyarde, which consists of salad with brebis bleu sauce at the bottom (if you get there) very tasty, delicious potatoes, cantal, and jambon du pays (cured ham) in a huge bowl.

My husband decided on a Salade Super Papa with same salad at the bottom, gesiers and foies, and lardons (bacon), cantal, toast chevre chaud. He enjoyed it very much and to him it was the best gesiers salad he had.

Our son went with omelet with cured ham. All with a pitcher of half of white wine.

A very good first meal for about 45E for the 3 of us, and a very good deal in Paris. I couldn't finish my salad as it was too big, but everything was delicious. Here is to a great beginning of our vacations.