Saturday 10 April 2010

Lunch at Le Detour

We had lunch yesterday with wine writer Jim Budd, his partner Carol and friend Anita at Le Detour, a brasserie in Civray-en-Touraine near Bléré.

Le Detour is run by Philippe and Laurence, with Laurence cooking. They've owned the place about 12 months and are starting to really make a name for the place with great food and relaxed friendly atmosphere. Jim has written about the restaurant a number of times.

We had the special of the day – Moules frites à volonté (mussels and chips, as much as you like), followed by a gâteau aux noix, pommes et miel (walnut, apple and honey cake). With coffee, for the two of us, this cost 27€. The wine was a 2005 Gamay*, produced by Claude Aupetitgendre a few kilometres down the road.

The mussels were robustly seasoned with herbes de Provence, and in a richer liquor than one normally gets. We liked them a lot, and the chips were perfect with smooth mayonnaise. Fingerbowls and mussel shell poubelle were provided as well as lots of banter. We enjoyed the meal and meeting Philippe and Laurence, and will definitely return there. It will be a great place to take clients if we are visiting Chenonceau or Montpoupon.

Although we have corresponded, and read one another's blogs, we hadn't met Jim until a couple of days ago. It was very pleasant to catch up with him again and to meet Carol and Anita too. Hopefully when we are living in more civilised style (i.e. with light switches and bathrooms and suchlike) we will see them down in Preuilly-sur-Claise.

Susan

*Actually a 2009 Gamay - see Jim's comment below

5 comments:

chm said...

I wish I had moules à volonté for lunch today. Moules marinières are my favorite. Lucky you!

Diogenes said...

That is a great price for two. The food sounds delicious.

Jim's Loire said...

It was good to meet both of you properly after our brief meeting at Rochecorbon on Wednesday.

Jim's Loire said...

Incidentally the wine was a 2009 Gamay in pichet. I confused things by showing you a bottle from the producer, which was 2005 but was a different wine.

Susan said...

Jim: I thought it was odd to get a wine as old as that in a pichet!

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