European Vacation 2008

Hotel Restaurant Hammes is a Perl in the small village of Perl in Germany close to the border of France and Luxemburg.

We arrive just on Lunch time on a Sunday … the Restaurant was fully booked (many tables obviously twice) with clients from all three countries represented in about equal numbers. We sat at the bar and watched the staff professionally work the floor without any problems. After about 45 minutes we were shown to a table just vacated by 4 EU citizens to start our gastronomic adventure in Germany …..

….. more soon when we get some time to write ….

In the small town of Meaux (a short distance to the east of Paris) we found another excellent place to eat.

This time it’s on board a moored ship - Restaurant La Peniche.
The chef who comes from the Alsas region and his team know how to create magic in the galley of this 3 storey river boat on a bend on the river in the centre of town.

….. more details soon when we get a bit of time to write.

Restaurant Andre in La Rochelle (next to the Hotel St Jean d’Acre) is another fine discovery - Excellent food and friendly service on both nights we visited (1st night inside and 2nd night on the sidewalk terrace).

…… more details to come soon when we get some time to write.

Finding a new “Good Food” place is part of our journey’s challenge.

Restaurante / Cafeteria “El Modernista” is one such place - only recently opened and still to be discovered even by the locals.

Chef “Mike” - a Lebanese American who now is in charge of this small Tapas Bar just off the southern beaches of Barcelona - is able to draw on many years of experience creating some of the new style of “Tapas”. It’s virtually anything goes from the original traditional Anchovy, Sardines etc to tasty sensations using potatoes, chickpeas, beef, turkey and so much more - what is fresh today and what ever is fresh from the mind and hands of a chef like Mike is like small morsels of food from heaven - in this place served very professionally by the lovely [Russian import] “Inna” who has learned the hospitaly trade well and is eager to please the diner with food & drink.

We left the choices of dishes to Mike and Inna on both evenings and we enjoyed everything of the wide variety placed on our table to be shared by all 4 of us. We wish the team - owner and staff - all the success they deserve. - We wish Mandurah and Western Australia could attract such high quality creators of fine casual food and service.

One of the main reasons we keep coming back to Rocamadour and the Beau Site Hotel is the Restaurant “Jehan de Valon”. The establishment has been featured in many articles and guides for fine dining including the Michelin Guide.

We found this place in 1996 and have been staying and eating here every time we have visited the EU - and celebrated many birthdays here

This year it’s Jacqui’s 50s and once again the staff and the food did not disappoint us.
This year we feasted on “pigs trotter’s terrine”, “Foes Gra”, “Scrambled Egg with Truffels” & hot “Smoked Salmon” for entrees.
Main Courses included the excellent local Roast Lamb - curved with much flair by the Maitre de’.

The Desert was a suprise from the house in the form of a nicely presented mixed forest fruit Mouse which was set in a delicated fine biscuite ‘case’, each serve was dished up with a fruit sauce. - another delightful finalle to the meal.

We had a bottle of Louis Roderer Champagne with our meal.
….. and when we returned to our room we found a half bottle of Champage and their small delightful Chocolate Mousse et al - unfortunately we were much to satisfied from the dinner to be able to consume anything else - The mousse was a nice breakfast snack and the champagne will be consumed at some later stage when appropriate.

We will continue to highly recommend this hotel and it’s excellent food and service
….. mercy bien

Possibly the main reason for returning to Saint-Remy-de-Provence for the 3rd time must be the Restaurant Auberge de la Raine Jeanne. The menu has not changed as far as we know over the six years (we have travelled to Europe every 2 years).

On the first night we had a selection of Panache de Poissons (Marinated Fish including Salmon, squid & small sardines), Salade de Gourmande (Gizzards & Foi Gras) and a plate of Marinade de Sardines. Main Courses we enjoyed were Brochette de St Jacques (Scallops with a spicy Provencal Sauce), Turbot au Thym and Supions Provencal.

The next night Jacqui & Jim shared one of the excellent Specialities of the house - a Bouillabaisse (This Fish soup is obviously best known for it’s origin in Marsaille) - this was pre-ordered as required by the kitchen the day before. Unfortunately Hans was struck down with a very bad cold and only watched the two obviously enjoying the feast - first the fish soup stock and than the various seafoods used to create the magnificent meal. Once again - like the night before - they washed it down with a bottle of Cassa Dom Paternel blanc.

On our way back to our lodgings from the Romain Aquaduct at the Pont-Du-Gard we stopped at Beaucaire and had lunch at the La Marine Brasserie / Restaurant.

This is one of those delightful small brasseries you find every where in France. They provide good honest fresh local food from a small kitchen at very good prices. This place - being able to source some excellent local fish, mussels, prawns etc obviously features these on teh menu.

Jacqui had the Prawns specials “Gambas Grillee”  from the blackboard & Hans had the “Marmite du Pecheur” - The Fisherman’s cooking pot (a good solid stock with a mix of large fish and crustations of the day). Jim chose the “Oven baked Camembert” which is served with a generous salad.

The service by a (russian imported) young waitress was very friendly and efficient. Obviously it’s a nice place to eat as many locals seemed to eat there too

We needed a good rest after a long drive [560km] from Mestre / Venice (only interupted by the excellent lunch in San Remo). Menton is an old established little seaside resort town between the french border with Italy and the small State of Monaco - on the French Cote D’Azure.

We staid for two nights at the Hotel Price de Galles in the western end of town.
A normal 3 star establishment with clean rooms (ours with small balconies overlooking the Mediteranian), a good healthy buffet style breakfast and a small Restaurant “Le Petite Prince” where Jacqui and Jim had meal on the second night.

On our rest day (the 2nd day) we had an excellent lunch over the road from the hotel at Elsa Plage - a place not unlike La Fontana in San Remo.
Once again we enjoyed a mix of excellent seafood - Prawns, Calamary and Sardines with French fries and Salad.

La Fontana is a Beach Restaurant in the northern end of San Remo, Italy.
We had an excellent seafood lunch at this establishment two years ago.

After a long and often very fast drive (speed sometime reaching over 16okm/h on the Italian Autostrada in the Mercedes C220 Hire car we were supplied by Hertz in Mestre/Venezia) we left the “A7″ guided by the onboard GPS and joined the D52 coastal road to try and find the establishment on the beach. After one bad start ending up in a dead end paking lot running along the beach front - we could actually see the Restaurant - we got back on the main road found a parking spot just meters from two years ago and walking down to the place which has recent new paint job and some other restauration work.

The food was still as good as we remembered it
…. we ended up with two large plates each of mixed battered / deep fried seafood  and grilled mix of all kinds of fresh seafood - washed down with beer and wine and we left once again satisfied on our way just of the Italian border into France.

Yes we did tell the staff about our own San Remo on the beach in Western Australia

03.May - local Pub
WE arrive only a couple of hours earlier and made our way down the road to the “local” - which we are happy to report has not changed in the last two years (? have the TV screens got bigger ?).

We had the usual drinks - Jim his white wine by the glass, Jacqui her Bourbon & Coke, Hans his glass (or 2) of lager.
J & J had a big salad plate with “prawns” and smoked salmon
H had to try the local Bangers & Mash - done here in a large Yorkshire Pudding with an onion gravy - good honest tucker.

04.May - local small restaurant - used to serve a lovely bean soup - it’s now a trendy Tappas Restaurant.

Seeing the Pub does not serve food after 5pm on a Sunday we ended up here.
The small plates at about 6 pounds each are not too small and between the 3 of us we had 6 plates to share around - including some spanish sausages, Whitebait, Fresh Baked bread, King Prawns & some squid rings.

It was OK considering Tappas are a native of Spain and service was by a Polish lassie …..