{"id":383572,"date":"2025-08-29T22:34:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T22:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/383572\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T22:34:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T22:34:15","slug":"my-gastronomic-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/383572\/","title":{"rendered":"My gastronomic tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"

On holiday in the Dordogne, I face an annual dilemma. My weekly Any Other Business column ruminates on the financial world with occasional restaurant tips to lighten the tone \u2013 and many readers tell me they frankly prefer the menus du jour to the boardroom dramas. My difficulty is that in a single page of The Spectator there\u2019s never space to do justice to both. Last week<\/a>, I ended up cramming seven restaurants into one short paragraph, a paltry snack where I\u2019d like to have offered a banquet. So here\u2019s my 2025 tour de France, as I called it, at somewhat fuller length, perhaps one of these days to be super-sized into an entire guidebook.<\/p>\n

This set of recommendations, I should explain, come mostly from British readers and friends in other parts of France. We\u2019ll get to my own selections towards the end but let\u2019s begin with lovely Catriona Olding<\/a>, widow of Low Life\u2019s Jeremy Clarke<\/a>, who tells me the vitello tonnato is excellent at Le Bistrot de Lou Calen<\/strong><\/a> in her Provencal village of Cotignac<\/strong> \u2013 and she and her daughter \u2018ended up in La Tuf bar next door until 1a.m.\u2019.<\/p>\n

While we\u2019re in the Provence region, an artist and winemaker friend says La Bartavelle<\/a><\/strong> (named after a local partridge) at Goult<\/strong> in Vaucluse is a hidden gem offering rabbit, pigeon and \u2018even pike\u2019 washed down with ros\u00e9\u00a0such as La Couloubre from nearby slopes. Or go upmarket to La Bergerie de Capelongue<\/a><\/strong> at Bonnieux<\/strong> in Luberon, where the de facto dress code is soir\u00e9e blanche (all white, men as well as women), the cocktail du jour is a boulevardier and the truffle pizza is \u2018uniquely delicious\u2019.<\/p>\n

Not all of southern France is so lucky, mind you. A London legal eagle with a hideaway in the mountainous Cevennes emails: \u2018This has become a bit of a gastronomic desert\u2019, but the best place within 100 kilometres \u2018was and probably still is La Mirande<\/a><\/strong> in Avignon<\/strong>, behind the Palais des Papes\u2019 \u2013 a grand old place indeed, where I see you can order an eight-course tasting experience for everyone at your table at \u20ac195 per head, or go \u20ac39 for a simpler menu de la semaine.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re bypassing Paris<\/strong> on this tour (though I\u2019ll throw in a quick mention of Le Trumilou<\/a><\/strong>, a cheap and cheerful people-watching spot on the Quai de l\u2019H\u00f4tel de Ville) and heading straight to Normandy, where a bon vivant chum tells me Le Drakkar<\/a><\/strong> in Deauville<\/strong> is a must for the horseracing crowd who descend for the August bloodstock sales as well as for\u00a0international jet-setteurs generally. \u2018And the black cod is magnifique.\u2019<\/p>\n

His other favourite this season is at Veules-les-Roses<\/strong>, a picturesque seaside village discovered in the 1840s by the notorious actress Mademoiselle Ana\u00efs of La Com\u00e9die-Fran\u00e7aise: \u2018La Source<\/a><\/strong> is a charming new restaurant with the most delicious oysters in Normandy, patronised by chic Parisiens who\u2019ve had the good sense to avoid St Tropez.\u2019<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0\u2018Patronised by chic Parisiens who\u2019ve had the good sense to avoid St Tropez\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

South-westwards again, to my cousin who\u2019s a Good Life-style smallholder in Charente. Her pick is L\u2019Estaminet du Chateau<\/a><\/strong> at Rochechouart<\/strong>, where the more challenging menu choices include carpaccio of pig\u2019s trotter and chorizo in chimichurri sauce. And at last back to the Dordogne, where there\u2019s such a buzz in the best places this summer that\u2019s it\u2019s often hard to book tables \u2014 even though my pessimistic French neighbour says \u2018La France est ruin\u00e9e\u2019. But hell, if the going\u2019s a bit tough in the wider economy, what better than a substantial lunch at L\u2019Auberge de la Nauze<\/a><\/strong> at Sagelat<\/strong>, one of those places where the giveaway is the line-up of white vans in the car park at midday, indicating that local tradesmen consider it value-for-money good eating. If you like it and you\u2019re brave, the whole place, like many businesses round here, is up for sale.<\/p>\n

Finally, further south over the hills in the Lot valley, my housemates adore La R\u00e9cr\u00e9ation<\/a><\/strong>, set in an old schoolyard in the village of Les Arques<\/strong>, where every meal begins with a sharp little bowl of gazpacho. And a last one from me, newly discovered, Le Vinois<\/a><\/strong> at Caillac<\/strong>, an oasis of calm among the vineyards of Cahors.<\/p>\n

Here lunch was just \u20ac19 for fish and a fine apple tart. But the sting was in the credit card terminal, which asked me whether I\u2019d like to add a tip of 10, 15 or 20 per cent, or nothing. In France, service is a matter of pride and tipping isn\u2019t part of the culture, though satisfied diners sometimes slip a small note under the coffee cup. The machine\u2019s question would surely offend traditional French customers, so I\u2019m wondering whether it was programmed only to ask foreign cardholders. Politely I tapped \u201810\u2019, but I hope this is not the start of a trend: if so, I\u2019ll certainly be fuming about it in Any Other Business.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On holiday in the Dordogne, I face an annual dilemma. My weekly Any Other Business column ruminates on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,1203,36,280],"class_list":{"0":"post-383572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-food","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-restaurants"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115114440457787031","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}