Yesterday was my birthday and Yves, a riverboat friend, had told me about a picturesque town about 35 kilometers from Sens called Moret Sur Loing. I wanted to go there 🙂
Gratuitous picture of flowers sent by our son from Aquarelle. Before we left for Moret, I searched the internet for a medium-high quality restaurant and found, among others, L’Auberge de la Terrasse located on the river Loing. The prices were quoted at 23-43 Euros per person. Good, I thought, we’ll have drinkable wine.
When we walked up to the front of the Auberge we noticed the cook staff unloading vegetables and condiments, obviously purchased from a supermarket, from the back of a car. Forewarned but oblivious, we entered the restaurant.
Even if it wasn’t my birthday, I would have ordered the coupe de Champagne as an apertif. I like coupe de Champagnes, but not this one. It was delivered to the table, lukewarm, clutched in the hand of somebody’s grandmother in a track suit. No bottle, no tray, no sophistication. M. Parret was appalled and I laughed out loud at the expression of disgust on his face 😀 Apparently Grandma was actually the female half of the owner couple. I have to admit that I was a little shocked; no matter how modest an establishment in France, the owners always seem to be well dressed and groomed. We decided to enjoy ourselves come what may, which seemed nearly impossible after we saw the wine list 🙁
Even our wine expert was stumped! The list was composed of the cheapest wines you could find in a Casino Express (think French 7/11). Choosing by color alone, we flipped a coin, chose the Macon-Village and got what we expected; a dry, French Thunderbird.
The food was cooked cafeteria style; overcooked, frozen vegetables and the rest over sauced, oily and bland; the only thing missing was the plate with partitions. There is no excuse for this! It’s summer and the farmer’s market, loaded with the season’s best, is near by!
I can’t say that the service was rude, just brutal in the way the plates were violently served and removed. What was that about?!
Anyway. It’s taken me days to post this. I just wanted to blank out the experience. We’re going back because it’s a pretty medieval town, lots to see and other places to eat.
Happy Birthday Rosemary!
I’m sorry you had such a poor experience – that place doesn’t look up to much. I have read that there can be a dearth of decent restaurants in rural France, where restauranteurs seem to want to cook a general style of French food (with supermarket ingredients) rather than producing regional food with local ingredients. However, on moaning to a friend of mine in Brittany, about French supermarkets killing local business, he said that the recession has sparked new interest in home grown vegetables and keeping livestock. Perhaps there’s hope yet 😉
Thank you Dog. The only thing I can figure out is that this auberge is on a tour list and that perhaps it’s a package deal with room and meals included. Otherwise who in the world would go there for food??!!
You poor darling what a horrendous birthday you had. They obviously didn’t want customers, particularly returning customers. It seems to me that you deserve another birthday treat and then I will say Bon anniveraire xxx
Thank you Sally. Maybe they’re retiring soon 😀
joyeux anniversaire !! gorgeous snaps.
Thank you Caitlin.
oh how i hate experiences like that. i hope you find a much better place when you return! happy belated birthday!
Thank you Jaz. I’m sure we’ll find a better place. We can only go up from here 🙂
It’s the worst when you have an experience like that on a special occasion. My husband and I had a similar experience at an expensive restaurant we had high expectations for and we left wondering why we didn’t just get burgers instead- it would have been more fun! Sorry you had such a dissapointing meal!
Thank you original. It can be terrible when you can’t even make the best of a bad choice.
Belated birthday greetings – such a shame about the lunch experience 🙁 I can highly recommend that you never celebrate a birthday with me as I seem to have a knack of picking the worst possible place to eat for special events!
😀 Thank you Chica. I think it would be fun to go to birthday with you just to see how bad it can get!
Really bad…and it’s in Janaury so the weather is usually also awful 🙁
Okay, never mind the restaurants, come to France or Honesdale or wherever I am and I will make your birthday lunch. If it’s Honesdale, we’ll shovel the walk before you arrive 😀
Sounds like a great idea to me 🙂
Yes, and I come to England in July(it’s cooler there) and we ask Roger which restaurant we should book 😉
Sorted! I think Roger shoud join us too in that case 😉
And Jenny! We could have fun!
The whole gang!
Oh dear. This would be bad on a normal day but your birthday? The horrors!
It was 🙁
Happy birthday! And, oh, yeah. Been there. Somehow, there are few things more disappointing than a bad French restaurant.
I guess we just expect more. For instance, in the U.S. I wouldn’t have blinked at the casually dressed owners, nor would I have expected a decent wine list nor professional waiters 🙂
That just shows you that there can be bad food everywhere . Happy belated Birthday and I hope you get to celebrate a second time in a fabolous restaurant .
I knew that Gerlinde but your chances seem better in France 😉
Joyeux Anniversaire!
I am sorry to hear about your bad experience. As you say, hopefully they will retire soon. Stop on by when you are in the Le Bugue area and we will share a coupe de champagne.
Nadia
http://Www.maisontravers.wordpress.com
Thank you Nadia. It’s a date! I’ll look up the area!
Good! looking forward to it.
Happy birthday, Rosemary. May that be your last bad meal.
Thank you for that great birthday wish Kass!
Happy birthday!! it’s like you stumbled upon a bit of the US in France – a very unwelcome bit!
That’s what I thought. I’m still suspicious of the owners; maybe Americans in disguise but not quite 😀
This looks so elegant, simple and delicious! I’ve been traveling for biz lately, so just catching up with my favorite blogger. 🙂
Welcome back!
Sorry I missed your birthday…belated greetings. I do hope that when you returned home in the evening that you enjoyed a better celebratory glass of something. 😀
Thank you Karen and yes we did 😀
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