Our Polish waitress denied knowing us, but we had much the same conversation about getting a bus to Warsaw from Victoria Coach Station as we had had last time. With the extra snippet of news being that some people make use of the unlimited baggage allowance to take all kinds of household appliances back to Poland. Vacuum cleaners, microwaves, maybe even small cookers, folding beds or coffee tables. Journey time of around 16 hours, including regular comfort breaks. Not for me.
We did well with our wine, having selected a 2011 Puligny-Montrachet from Alain Chavy, the top of their white range. I can only find a facebook page for Alain Chavy, but the general impression from Bing is that this is a respectable brand. It also looked as if the Café Rouge markup was less than the times three that one usually expects. In any event, a fine wine, especially when it had a chance to come up a bit from chiller temperature. Well up to the standard set by a Montrachet something else getting on for a year ago, noticed at reference 4.
Rillettes good, but I should have asked for more bread as they were a bit mean in that department, just like the public houses which give you a huge chunk of refrigerated cheese, but with hardly any bread to go with it. Toulouse sausage entirely satisfactory as a sausage, but not much like the Toulouse sausage made by our butcher in Manor Green Road. Far too much fat - milk, butter, oil or something - had been put into the mash, but I had remembered to ask for the gravy on the side - which came in a miniature saucepan, maybe a bit more than an inch in diameter, with a handle to suit. Chocolate mousse fine. Calvados fine. BH opted for soup, moules frites and Earl Grey. All things considered, a good meal, reasonably priced.
Across the way from us we had three French speakers, two ladies and a boy, possibly a lady out with her mother and her son. With the mother keeping her rather grand hat on while she ate, something like that illustrated above, a custom long gone in this country. We were amused to be eating in company with possibly real French people, served by Polish people in a Frenchified chain restaurant. I thought about asking them about themselves, but decided that this might be a mistake having taken a drop of Calvados, which would probably smell on my breath. They, I think, we on soft drinks. I do, however, associate to a French baker, possibly in Amboise, who once told us that she really liked eating in English chain restaurants: reasonable prices and you could eat at any time of day; none of the this nonsense about 1200-1400 and 1800-2100. Possibly the baker handiest to the Camping Municipal de l'Ile d'Or, very roughly gmaps 47.4175569,0.983563. She certainly made us a fine birthday cake.
Strolled home back up the hill, to be amused by a youngish lady, maybe early thirties, charging half way up the hill at full tilt, then walking back down, pausing a moment and then doing it again. I thought at first that there was a touch of exhibitionism about the performance, but thinking a bit harder I thought that West Hill was the only convenient hill for that particular sort of exercise on our side of Epsom. And I much prefer to take my exercise outside, never having been attracted to gyms and not that keen on indoor swimming pools.
Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/apologia.html.
Reference 2: http://www.casualdininggroup.com/. The owners of Café Rouge. They own a number of chains, some quite small, but I get the impression that Café Rouge is the jewel in their crown. I have not looked close enough to find out whether the original Mr. Café Rouge is still in the business, now near 30 years old. Did he buy some huge house somewhere in Surrey, complete with Chelsea tractor (hers) and helicopter pad (his)? Is he dead? Did his children sell out to a private equity outfit? Probably not, as somewhere there was talk of Whitbread having been in the loop at some point.
Reference 3: https://www.facebook.com/domainealainchavy/.
Reference 4: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/one-that-got-away.html. M&S have not restocked, but Waitrose have something with a similar name. Now fallen for a spot of home delivery.
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