A la Colthard/restaurant wrap up
Last weekend’s visit to Sanary and Cannes on Monday meant for some visits to some fine restaurants.
At Sanary we always go to the Hotel de la Tour whose signature dish is sea bass baked in salt.
It’s delicious but leaves you thirsty.
Mireille does not hold back on ordering and the final bill with good wine (Chateau Pinandon) was £100 per head.
Afterward I visited one of those divine patisseries and bought a three-flavoured chocolate gateau for Mireille’s dinner party for us that night.
She is an excellent hostess and cook.
I don’t often go to dinner parties these days so it was a rare treat.
On Monday we went to Cannes.
It was hot enough to go to a beach restaurant Mome de la Plage.
I ordered squid a la plancha (tomato sauce). There was that animated ambience of holidaymakers combined with French elegance. The bill was 50 euros per head but Cannes and Monte Carlo are the most expensive resorts here.
As for hotels we always stay at La Farandole in Sanary. It’s a modern hotel on the beach with fine views over the bay to Bandol.
In Cannes we stayed at the Grand on the Croisette.
It was expensive (£500 per night) and a tad soulless but my room did have a balcony, a separate WC and the location was superb.
Last night we had a lighter meal in the old town of Nice at Bistro Antoine, a popular restaurant.
It was bustling.
The problems with Nice old town restaurants is that they tend to be minuscule and outside – where diners can smoke – they tend to leave their cigarettes in the air so it wafts into your table.
I had a simple but rich dish of a cassoulet of pork. It did the trick.
One universal point of praise is the quality of waitering.
In Britain the waiter/waitress tends to be itinerant but here you come across highly-professional waiters who are more permanent fixtures and regard it as a career.
Our Dutch waiter at the Colombe d”or was such a person.
The Bistro Antoine was a family business and I think our charming and helpful waitress part of the family.
She worked so hard whilst being polite and helpful that I could only best thank her with a generous tip.
