Restaurant Update

We were there 21 July for 1 week. To be honest not really impressed with the village restaurants. Mexican was shut all week (probably just as well judging by the comments on this forum). Le 1950 looks promising: we had breakfast on the first day & that was fine, however the one evening meal we had there was only adequate. Nevertheless it would be unfair to knock it on the basis of only one attempt & I really hope that it succeeds as the ambience is fine and the concept of a brasserie-type establishment is good. We will give it another go this winter.

Of the others only La Bolee really came up to scratch. Pity about the rather stark dining area: as it lacks atmosphere. The food is fine, however you can't really eat crepes for your evening meal more than once or twice in a week.

East was OK although the menu was limited. I will go back, however I felt it was more suited to groups of adults rather than families. (This was a bit of a problem in some of the other restaurants as well). Would have liked to try Chez Anne, but put off by the rather stern notice stating kids menu only for children up to 6 years! Similarly Hemingways and Luigis both gave out adult-orientated vibes. To be fair, two Scottish kids aged 7 & 9 years does rather limit the options to pizza & pasta and maybe kids from south of England have more educated palates??? Perhaps they were just having an off day the first time we went to Valentino's, but they were OK on the second night and for carry-out pizza another.

We only had drinks at Chalet de L'Arc but it gave out all the right vibes as being the real-deal. Not open in the evenings in the summer sadly; can't wait to try it this winter.

There was a noticeable absence of French families in the restaurants at night- despite the fact that perhaps ~70% of guests in the village appeared to be French. With the French love of food, perhaps they had worked out that the restaurants were not up to scratch and headed-off elsewhere? To be fair, there seemed to be more French people using the restaurants at lunchtime.

We found Jean-Paul delightful & made a point of buying cheese etc from him rather than cheaper alternatives in Bourg. He made us feel very welcome when he found out that we were new owners as a consequence of which we felt it important to support his business.

Interesting psychology: we rapidly developed the feeling that as owners we should support the local economy despite some of the imperfections discussed above.

Alastair Pell