A la Colthard/Eating out in Chichester.

Chichester is renowned for its cathedral, theatre and art gallery – but not its restaurants.

I accompanied Alice (Mansfield) on Tuesday to the Pallant Gallery.  I enjoyed the Gwen John exhibition and particularly her draughtmanship.

Can one use that word now or should it be draughtswomanship?!!!

Over the years I have appreciated the Pallant but not last time its café.

We had not booked and therefore were allocated a table in the open air patio.

I saw a surly waitress throw down a menu at the table to which we had been directed, which was a snack and not lunch menu.

When  I asked the waitress for the lunch menu she replied brusquely “My colleague will serve you”.  We waited another 10 minutes but – of her colleague or indeed anyone prepared to serve us – there was no sign.  The waitress, exuding hostility, passed by our table four times.

I suggested we walked out and we did.

I liked the look of a Greek restaurant called Santorini near the station and we went there.

I had traditional starters of hummus, taramasalata and calamari – fluffy and lightly battered as they should be – with a glass of excellent Santorini white and moussaka – all for £40.

The service was prompt and helpful, the food copious and authentic and, being near the station, we could gauge our timings.

All in all a much better experience than the Pallant.

Alice intended to visit two more exhibitions featuring female artists this month: Barbara Hepworth at the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne and Berthe Morisot at the Dulwich Picture Gallery.

I did not have her knowledge of art but said that we women had made a mark in ways beyond the canvas.

My heroine Lee Miller had pitched up in Man Ray’s studio in Paris to become his … er … muse and Gwen John was the lover of Auguste Rodin.

Salvador Dali’s wife Gail managed him and his career.

The formidable Diane Armfield – 100 years old now – is as well-known and rated as was her husband Bernard Dunstan.