THREE 19.90€ ($22.75) LOCAL LUNCH MENUS IN FRANCE

If you haven't figured out by now that one of the neatest perks that life in France provides is the quality of the food, you just haven't been paying attention. I'll do a deep dive into the quality and price of fruit and veggies at the grocery store in a subsequent post. Today, let's do lunch. 

At first glance, one might conclude that lunch choices in France don't differ that much from what's available in the USofA, particularly in such small cities near us as Beziers and Narbonne. Both with populations under 100,000, they host chains painfully familiar to Americans - Burger King, McDonald's and KFC. In Paris recently, I've seen Popeye's and Whataburger franchises.  And France-specific joints also dot the landscape. I've reviewed La Pataterie, a chain with franchises throughout France that serves burgers between patties of hash browns instead of buns. (But the beer is cold.) Pizza is ubiquitous, some with cracker-thin crust, some wood-fired. The best is Sicilian and we have a couple of good ones close by. Believe it or don't, pizza vending machines are a thing. I've had the urge to try one. I have resisted the urge.

 

Bar food can be interesting in the States. In my old stomping ground of Allentown, PA there's a place called Ringer's Roost that has an interesting menu of mostly fried food. And Stahley's has been around for 60 years and knows how to put together a cheese steak. I've enjoyed lunching in both joints and I have nothing against American bar food. But the lunches served in local bars here in France, one within walking distance, two more that I'll discuss a short ride away, differ substantially in quality from similarly situated American establishments. And are probably cheaper as well. Again, it's been awhile. You decide.

 

BAR LE 40

Quarante is the name of the town that we live in. Quarante is also the French word for 40. Thus, the local watering hole has taken the name Bar le 40. (The reason for a town founded by the Romans a bunch of centuries ago being named for a number is a topic for conjecture to this day.) Bar le 40 sits near the center of our little village, a couple of hundred meters from our house, and is open for a morning coffee and croissant plus full lunches and dinners from Tuesday through Saturday. Closed Sunday and Monday. Dinners feature relatively simple fare - burgers, dinner salads, steak and fries. But the lunches can be a treat. 

 

The lunch menu features daily specials that are announced at the beginning of the week. Fridays are always seafood. Choose a small salad or an assortment of charcuterie to start. (Charcuterie is French for little pieces of ham and sausages and paté or whatever to pick at, maybe accompanied by a gherkin and butter and slices of baguette.) Then the special of the day. Then the dessert of the day or ice cream. This week's specials, excluding the fish on Friday were:

Tuesday: grilled hanger steak with sauce Bordelaise and mashed potatoes,

Wednesday: grilled chicken skewers marinated in honey/mustard sauce with rice, and

Thursday: pork tenderloin with smoked paprika sauce and new potatoes. 

 

Start plus main plus dessert plus a glass of wine = $22.75 at the current exchange rate. Less than a DoorDash combo meal and not the same old, same old.

 

LA BELLE EPOQUE

In a little collection of small businesses and restaurants in a small town down the road about 20 minutes, La Belle Epoque calls itself a brasserie. I suppose that a bar with decent food can call itself a brasserie if it wants, although to me the appellation implies a bit more upscale establishment. Not the La Belle Epoque is in any way seedy. It's just a bar with decent food. And speaking of the food...

 

La Belle Epoque posts the lunch special of the day on Facebook every morning at about 9am. The special changes daily and includes a start, a main, and a dessert. One of the starts is typically a charcuterie plate like the one mentioned above. One of the mains is typically a steak with sauce - might be pepper or parsley butter or Roquefort. Tiramisu seems to be a favored dessert. If those three standard choices don't interest you, try picking from one of the recent menus:

* Rustic salad with mushrooms followed by sauteed pork with olives and panacotta for dessert,

* Gaszpacho followed by grilled pork tenderloin in garlic cream with lemon tart for dessert,

* Fresh melon with ham followed by breaded turkey in mushroom sauce and panacotta for dessert,

* Salad with goat cheese followed by stewed Basque chicken and yes, panacotta.

 

Again, $22.75. If you are worried that you won't like the day's special, you have to check in early to make your plans for the day. But then, there's always charcuterie and steak if the special doesn't suit. 

LA BONNE FRANQUETTE PIZZERIA

On a main road between Quarante and La Belle Epoque, La Bonne Franquette has recently reopened after a bit of a makeover and upped its game. Of the three I'm talking about today, this is the one that comes closest to being a full-on restaurant. Oddly, although it calls itself a pizzeria, La Bonne Franquette only serves pizza in the evening. France. But the lunch menu is varied, very French. 

 

I'm not going to translate. Check out the slate. This is the sort of thing that you will see when you visit a rural restaurant in France. You should be able to recognize gazpacho and salad. Thon is tuna. Enjoy figuring out the rest.

WHY I LOVE FRENCH DINING: TWO QUIRKY FRENCH RESTAURANTS

Praising French cuisine has become a cottage industry. Likewise, trashing French cuisine has become a cottage industry. Love it or hate it, but you have to have an opinion. I have an opinion: If you want to investigate well-prepared, well-presented, reasonably priced (usually) restaurant fare, you could hardly do better than to start your investigation in France.

We've had the opportunity to dine at Michelin Star restaurants serving multiple courses paired with appropriate wines and we've soaked down artisanal beers while eating burgers at our local bar. The sheer number of pleasant places to pass a leisurely two or three hours across a lunch or dinner table beggars the imagination. To flourish in such an environment, the food had better be fresh, should be as locally produced as possible, and must be reasonably priced for its slot in the restaurant pecking order.

During summer, we have a tendency to go casual. Perhaps a seasonal pop-up restaurant on the beach, perhaps a 'guinguette' or roadhouse, likely but not necessarily seasonal as well. Which leads us to today's scribbling, two quirky restaurants, one a neighborhood joint and one a pop-up on a river bank, that Michelin has passed by but that we have really enjoyed. 

GUINGUETTE ROQUEBRUN

The term guinguette comes from the name of a cheap green wine served at roadhouses in the small towns outside of Paris and other French cities in the 17th Century. Today, the makings of a seasonal guinguette are stored in warehouses or shipping containers in the winter, set up along rivers and in campgrounds in time for the summer crowds, and packed away again a few months later when the season is over. Today, you can bet that a successful guinguette doesn't sell cheap green wine. In fact, today many modern guiguettes have bottles of good, local wine to go with an interesting and varied dinner menu. Lunch is usually not so fancy, featuring the obligatory burgers and a couple of different salads. One of the better guiguettes in our region sits on the banks of the Orb River, calling itself simply the Guinguette Roquebron.

The picture that I took of Roquebrun that appears at the head of this post has not been altered in any way. I just walked over to the front of the guinguette at sunset, pointed my phone, and shot. In other words, Roquebrun is one of those French villages that looks exactly like the typical French village that you have pictured in your mind's eye. During COVID lock down, we took picnics by the riverside. When the nieces come visit, we take them to swim in the river. Last week, we had dinner there with friends.

I won't force your mouth to water by describing every dish. Check out the pictures. All properly prepared and portioned, presented at a leisurely pace by reasonably attentive servers, and thoroughly enjoyable. Every bite. Of our party of five, two had two starters and no main dish, one of us had a main dish but no starter, and two of us had both a starter and a main. Three desserts and two coffees. A bottle of white wine and a liter of house rosé. And the bill came to about $40 pp plus tip, which in France is just a few euros to show appreciation because servers are paid for their work and don't rely on tips. 

The Guinguette Roquebron closed on September 8th and will return next June. The good lord willing and the creek don't rise, we'll be back then.

Rump Steak with Garlic Butter, Fries and Salad

Slow-Cooked Lamb Shank with Polenta and Veg

Gazpacho

Ceviche

Lemon Cheese Cake

Au fil de l'air

Above the air. Over the air. Through the air. That's the translation of the name of a restaurant with small, simple interior and a nice-sized terrace with a great view of the Orb valley below. Maybe the name of the restaurant references that view. Maybe, it's a play on words on the town's name - Les Aires - and the fact that the restaurant and the Les Aires town hall share a parking lot. We'll have to ask. But that's just the name, never fully capitalized for those of you who have noticed. It's all about the food. And the food's good.

Each day, they post the lunch special on a Facebook page. 16€ plus wine. Three courses. We've been twice. For starters we had tomato and mozzarella slices with pesto the first time, Serrano ham and slices of sweet melon the next. In season, fresh, and nice little portions. For the mains, slow-cooked rabbit quarters the first time and aligot with grilled sausage the next. (For those who don't know aligot, it's from the hills of the Massif Central. Mostly potatoes and cheese with butter and garlic and such, you almost have to wind it up like pasta it's so cheesy, twirling it on your fork. Keeps those folks up north warm in the winter.) Again, good portions, well-prepared, and faithfully executed. Not farmhouse cooking. Country cooking. Finishes of fresh peaches in vanilla-flavored syrup and a layered raspberry pastry made for excellent, lunch-sized desserts. 

With the menu and wine, maybe 20€ per person. With an aperitif, wine, and coffee, 25€. 

Every town needs on of these, a place to spend an easy couple of hours over a good meal in a nice space and leave with your wallet relatively intact. If we lived closer, it'd be on the circuit. Well worth the drive.

Au fil de l'air prepares 20 servings of the posted menu, so get there early if that's what you want.

L'ARTICA BAKERY AND CAFE, ALQUEZAR SPAIN - RESTAURANT REVIEW

When it's off season and you are visiting a vacation destination early in the week, choices can be limited. The only bakery/cafe that was open at the beginning of our stay in Alquezar was L'Artica. It was enough. We never even walked through the doors of the others after they opened.

The bread display case was filled with enticing goodies. Both the main and the upper floor featured small balconies with views over a rocky gorge. The coffee filled the mid morning bill. The beer was cold. (Yes, a bakery with a bar!) And the food hearty and priced right.

We lunched on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday, I had a French loaf filled with scrambled eggs and sausage while Cathey enjoyed dense, toasted bread topped by salt cod. On Wednesday, I chose a smoked salmon/hard-boiled egg sandwich while Cathey munched on an assortment of charcuterie on toast. Each with beer. Each meal for less than 25 euros total. Cheerful attentive service. Pleasant surroundings. Recommended.

Read more of my reviews HERE.