The best part of my trip to France last month was poking around the Southwest. Carcassonne, the Lot, Perigord, the Dordogne. Beautiful, restful, lots of interesting little towns. Below is some of the nice things we found. See also my notes on restaurants from the trip and my photos.

Carcassonne

This restored hilltop city is one of the best known sites in Languedoc. It’s very touristy without a whole lot to do, but it’s beautiful and pleasant, particularly in the evening. I’m glad we stayed in the old city itself at the Hôtel de la Cité.

Albi

We dropped into this town for just an hour; next time I’ll spend a couple of days. Beautiful medieval town in red brick, including an amazing bridge and the Basilica of St. Cécile, an imposing fortress of a cathedral with a beautiful interior. Albi was the center of the Cathar heresy, a big part of the history of southwest France.

Mercuès (Cahors)

The town of Mercuès isn’t worth a special trip, but the fantastic Château de Mercuès is. It’s everything I like about fine French country hotels. You drive across the valley and see a 17th century château on the hill. That’s your room for the night. Lovely staff, great restaurant, fantastic view and a serious winemaking operation on the grounds. And the location is a great base for exploring the Lot, Quercy, the area around the Canal du Midi, etc. These two days were my favourite part of the trip.

Saint-Cirq Lapopie

A preserved medieval village on a hilltop just a bit east of Cahors. It makes for a picturesque couple of hours of ambling towards a good lunch in the middle of a day driving along the Lot valley. André Breton lived there in his old age.

Puy l’Eveque

Another charming old town, this one west of Cahors on the Lot river. There’s not a lot to do there, but I got two great photos and the town is the center for the local area. We had a nice lunch there at Le Fournil De L’Opera Bouffe, on the main street.

Domme

Yet another hilltop town, on the drive north into Perigord, This one is remarkable for its amazing view over the Dordogne. Also a great place to buy preserved foie gras.

Les Eyzies de Tayac

Our third home base on our trip, chosen mostly for its fantastic restaurant and proximity to Lascaux. I’m really glad we visited Lascaux: the reproduction is great and the art is truly amazing. Les Eyzies is the center of research into prehistoric man in France; the area is lousy with caves and artifacts. The Museum of Prehistory is a must see if you like seeing case after case of chipped rocks.

Sarlat la Caneda

A compact medieval city that’s also bustling with real people going about their lives. Definitely worth an afternoon’s walking around; I may stay here next time. Life seems good there.

Toulouse

The end of our time in the Southwest, France’s third largest city. I wish I could say I liked it more, but the crowds and busyness were an unwelcome contrast to our bucolic ambles in the countryside. It’s a very lively city though, with plenty of interesting things to do. I’d enjoy it more if I were in an urban mood.

Looking back on my notes, I see our trip was heavy with charming medieval towns. I guess that’s what I like to do best in France, just poke around the area and find interesting architecture, views, towns, etc. It seems to me people live pretty well in the countryside there.

Here are some notes about some of the more memorable places we dined in France (in addition to the steak frites place). I’m not a food critic, so this may be boring, but maybe it’ll be helpful for people looking for places to go in Paris or in the Southwest.

Paris, Le Dauphin, 167 rue Saint Honoré (1st)

A pleasant casual restaurant specializing in Southwest cuisine. I had a very satisfying cassoulet. They’re open Sundays, a rare thing.

Paris, Le Verre a Soi, 11 rue d’Armaillé (17th)

A new restaurant owned by a friend of mine. Very casual neighbourhood place, simple food for a fair price. Interesting wines, too. If you’re feeling tired of speaking French, Evelyne is very friendly and speaks great English.

Paris, Le Petit Prince, 12 rue Lanneau (5th)

Near Panthéon, this place has been around for at least twenty years and has been known as a gay place. There’s still a vestige of that (the staff, later diners), but good cooking and good reviews in Zagat have turned this into a very popular place. Good basic French cooking.

Paris, Carré des Feuillants (1st)

Ken and I wanted to go for a fancy blowout dinner in Paris, so we walked through the Michelin and picked this two star place for being just down the street and with a table available. We were disappointed, though. The food was excellent but a bit too technical for my tastes. The service was really off and the room was unpleasant. I’ve had bad luck with the fanciest places in Paris, I didn’t care much for Taillevent either. So maybe the problem is me.

Paris, Au Relais 48 rue Lamarck (18th)

The worst meal I had in Paris. We wanted a non-touristy bistro near Montmartre, no mean feat. This fit the bill, and I’m sure it’s lovely if you’re French and in a hurry and want something cheap and simple. But I’m not. Started off badly with me saying “bon jour, madame!” in my friendliest voice, only to get a look of scorn on the wench’s face and an indignant “non! mademoiselle!”. She shouted loudly back to the kitchen for menus for “étrangers” and it went downhill from there. Food was OK, but boy did I feel unwelcome. But it wouldn’t be Paris without a surly waiter experience.

Paris, Musée d’Orsay Restaurant

More than an expediency, the museum restaurant is worth planning a lunch around. The room is fabulous, a restored belle epoque hotel dining room. And the menu was quite good, if a bit uneven. We had the best salad we had the whole trip, but Ken’s confit wasn’t cooked right. Bad luck.

Carcassonne, La Barbacane, Hôtel de la Cité

A one star place in the middle of the old city of Carcassonne. Beautiful room with excellent classic service and an excellent menu. The staff took it well when I laughed at one of their dishes: a “spaghetti bolognese” that was done up to look like a sushi roll (spaghetti rolled like the bamboo matt around the veal). This was the first meal I truly enjoyed on our trip. It was like coming home, where home has black tie waiters and forty cheeses to choose from.

Mercuès (Cahor), Chateau de Mercuès

My favourite hotel on the trip, a fabulous 17th century restored Chateau. The dining room is excellent, with one Michelin star and a very beautiful room. Excellent food, very comforting and complex, if a bit heavy. Great cheese selection. The hotel also doubles as a winery, although I’m embarassed to admit we drank other Cahors instead of theirs.

Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, Hôtel du Centenaire

This dinner was the nicest we had, a two star place in the middle of Cro-Magnon country. Very extravagant and carefully prepared food, lovely service, all in all excellent. The chef has a light and subtle touch, something welcome particularly in Perigord.

Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, Restaurant Au Vieux Moulin

Our second dinner in Les Eyzies, because we couldn’t face the complexity of Centenaire two nights in a row. A very lovely restaurant attached to a nice looking hotel, down by the stream with great outdoor seating. Very friendly people with elevated country cooking; the only downside was every dish had the same foie-gras/truffle sauce. I’d definitely go back.

Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, Pizzeria Mentalo

A fantastic roadside place for a quick tourist lunch. They’ve got it all, but what’s best is their fresh made pizza. I had the pizza mentalo with smoked duck and cabecou, it was lovely.

Sarlat la Canéda, Auberge des Lys d’Or, Place André Malraux

One of my favourite finds for lunch, an honest little place in the middle of tourist Sarlat. Very comfortable and well made local food, finishing with a fantastic tarte aux noix. I’m sure you can dine very poorly in Sarlat, so I was glad to find this place.

Toulouse, Restaurant Dominique Toulousy, Place du Capitole

Absolutely fantastic (one star) restaurant in the middle of Toulouse. Toulouse drove us crazy, the hotel and restaurant in the middle of Capitole was a welcome oasis of calm. Excellent menu of regional food prepared very delicately and beautifully. Ken had the famous foie gras ravioli, which were awesome, and I had the carpaccio of oysters which were also awesome if very, very oysterish. The whole meal was fantastic. The place seems entirely overrun by businessmen on expense accounts, too bad because the food deserves more attention than that.

Ken and I are food tourists and we eat well in France. But sometimes we get tired of foie gras, delicate vegetables, and French menus (just what are St. Jacques’ nuts? Mussels? Scallops? Clams?) When we get overwhelmed and want comfort food in Paris, Ken and I head to one of several steak-and-fries places. Couldn’t be simpler. You sit down and the waitress immediately hands you a little salad (walnuts, mustard dressing). No menu, just two questions. How do you want the steak cooked? A point. Do you want wine? Yes. (But get the wine list: the house red is awful.) The waitress swiftly comes back with a plate of delicious steak bathed in a yummy mustard and sage sauce, along with some perfect pommes frites. You eat your steak and fries, they bring you a second helping (kept warm over candles), and then it’s on to dessert. Skip dessert.

The whole process is the opposite of the usual French temple-of-food experience. But it’s very satisfying and, judging by all the Parisians we see there, quite popular with the locals. The restaurants are a franchise. We’ve been to Le Relais de l’Entrecôte in the 6th (20bis rue St. Benoit, conveniently a block from St. Germain de Prés) and Le Relais de Venise in the 17th (271 bd. Péreire). The joint in the 6th even has the same 1945 Cognac Rouyer poster I have at home!

Hey there, I’m back from a nice little vacation to France. Paris, the Lot valley, Perigord. I actually got sick of eating foie gras and truffles: life’s pretty good. But before I write up the fun stuff, here are some reasons to hate Air France:

1. The cabin in their 747-400 from SFO to CDG is older than I am.
2. Paris has two airports, who woulda thought? And if you miss your domestic flight because you’re an idiot and went to CDG instead of ORY, Air France makes you buy full fare tickets to replace the flight you missed.
3. They don’t have proper gates at CDG, so you get to spend 30 minutes riding a bus all over the airfield to get to your plane.
4. They lose one bus of passengers, it takes 30 minutes to find them.
5. Only one of your two suitcases is on your flight.

Bah! But France was great, lots more to come. One quick suggestion: the Chateau de Mercues is fantastic if you want a relaxing country stay in the Lot, near Cahors.