Bit of a lapse from grace to report. Two restaurant meals in the past 48 hours. Maybe it's the realisation we're due back in England next week and will no longer be able to sit in the sun pretending it's June.
Neither meal was wantonly extravagant. The first was at what is basically a seafood caff called Chez Loulou which serves some of the most brilliantly fresh shellfish and fish I've ever eaten. The second was at a restaurant that overlooks the oyster beds at Bouzigues.
I'm not going to tell you the name because it's a mercifully Brit-free zone which is becoming increasingly rare in this part of France. Not that I mind my fellow countrymen, I just don't want them to outnumber the French.
I justified the whole exercise to myself on the following grounds
a) I was eating local food and drinking local wine. Being a 'locavore' (someone who does just that) is very PC these days
b) Oysters are ridiculously cheap here - about 8 euros (just over £6 a dozen - enough for two)
c) Grilled fish and oysters are hugely healthy
d) Oysters were at one time the food of the poor so I was just undertaking a bit of historical research . . .
Still, not exactly frugal, I must confess.
3 comments:
Oh, I get it. We're supposed to read this daggy little blog (which, after all, is your [hopeful] short cut to making a pot of money) and you won't even tell us the name of some out-of-the-way restaurant in case some of us UK oiks think we might like to visit. What about the proprietors, who may be interested in attracting some new custom? Talk about reinforcing 'local' stereotypes: not all of us hate the French, and not all of the French hate us. You can keep your slimy local lettuce leaves, love. I'm off to buy some expensive, overpackaged airfreighted South American french beans just out of spite ...
Anonymous,
Whilst your little 'rant' was (and I'd hate to give credence to it) mildly amusing, more pathetic, I think it's worth taking a moment to step back and see the bigger picture here. I have been following Fiona's blog with some interest (I'm a dag you see), and think it's an incredibly relevent point that she is making, especially in an age when waste, over-indulgence (and ignorance) is rife. You may have even heard of this little 'oopsie' called 'climate change'.....?
I am sure that most proprietors would welcome new business, but not from the kind of Britisk oiks who's definition of a successful holiday is copious amounts cheap lager and (even cheaper) kareoke.
So, anonymous, I guess what I am getting at here, is that if it were all left up to people like you, we'd be looking at a pretty bleak picture - up to our arses in expensive packaging, greenhouse gases, and nowhere untainted to escape to....
thanks, lola for springing to my - and the climate's - defence. I do think individuals can - and must try to - make a difference.
On a point of fact, anonymous, regretfully most writers don't make a pot of money unless they're Delia or J K Rowling
And it's not about hating the English, simply wanting the French to retain their cultural identity
As for daggy - well, it's just a blog. Easy enough not to read it.
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