Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Best Restaurant in Aix-en-Provence - Le Formal

During our six weeks in Aix-en-Provence, we've been eating out almost every night, giving us a chance to try a large number of restaurants and go back to those that we liked. What a great experience! Aix has many excellent restaurants, and I've written about many that we've been to in other posts. I've also published a "best of" post that highlights what we like most in categories such as best traditional cuisine or best people-watching.

But in all our dining experiences in Aix, one restaurant stands out, and clearly merits the designation "The Best Restaurant in Aix-en-Provence":

Le Formal (32 rue Espariat - Tel: 33 (0)4 42 27 08 31) is quite a revelation, and given the somewhat obscure location (though close to La Rotonde) and modest signage, I was going to label it a "find," only to learn that it is one of the only restaurants in Aix that is full every single day throughout the year. It is obvious why.

Ambiance
After a long, modern, but narrow hallway at street level, you descend into a beautifully lit set of vaulted dining rooms, combining old stone work with modern art and seating. This is the way 'caves' should be, fresh and airy, yet imbued with a sense of age and history. This is a great and unique environment.

Food
On our first visit, we had the tasting menu featuring truffles (49 euro, the highest on the menu) and were stunned with how good it was. Interesting, innovative, complex, flavorful, and truly rewarding, our biggest question was how Michelin could justify not giving a star to a place that so obviously merits it.

On our second visit, we had the "Revolution" menu, at 39 euro, which only confirmed our initial experience. The first course was a "canneloni," really a light shell filled with a delicious goat cheese mousse, topped with a piece of fish, called rouget. It was beautifully presented on a triangular plate drizzled with two different reductions. The next course was a house-made foie gras pate which may be the best I've ever had, again stylishly presented. Then scallops, succulent, flavorful, and fresh, followed by a lamb that is the way lamb should be. To finish, a dessert in three parts that we greatly enjoyed, and a small plate of cookies arrived with the coffee.

Service
In a word, "impeccable." Undoubtedly inspired by the chef and owner Jean Luc Le Formal's low-key and accessible style (he's greeted us warmly both times at the top of the stairs as we left) the wait staff was competent without the least sense of pretension or over-formality. Food was delivered with excellent pacing, and our glasses were re-filled promptly and unobtrusively.

Wine
A good list, with an adequate but not quite broad enough selection of half bottles, Le Formal is clearly able to accomodate a wide range of wine palates and budgets. The selection of wines in the list was done with care and supports the quality of the dining experience, but doesn't break new ground the way the food does. I think a little more of the restaurant's philosphy and personality could be reflected in the wine list and its presentation.

Conclusion
Our experience at Le Formal was more satisfying than the one we had at Clos de la Violette, yet it was less than one third the price. I said in the beginning that I didn't understand why Le Formal has not been given a Michelin star. Perhaps, though, it would stop being a 'find' and a great value and become, instead, a hostage to that rating and acknowledgement. So ignore Michelin stars and have the best dining experience in Aix at Le Formal!

Best Contemporary Restaurants in Aix-en-Provence

There are some wonderful contemporary restaurants in Aix-en-Provence. In this post I'll review Les 2 Freres, Le Restaurant 37, Le Passage, L'Opera, and Mitch. I reviewed Le Formal in a separate post, calling it the best restaurant in Aix.

Last night we ate at Les 2 Freres at 4 Avenue Reine Astrid (telephone 04 42 27 90 32) which is a ten minute walk from La Rotunde in the direction directly away from the old town. In the middle of a residential district is one of the most stunning examples of modern restaurant design I've seen. Stainless steel, wood, glass, bamboo, great lighting, Philippe Starck chairs, stucco, all artfully integrated. I loved it, as would anyone who is, like me, a charter subscriber to Dwell. The food was excellent, though not as innovative as Le Formal. Still, my lamb was some of the best lamb I've ever had, Stri ordered duck, unusual for her, but she said she liked it, and I greatly enjoyed the playful desserts. They made pasta for the girls, and there was a large open area next to the restaurant they could run in when they couldn't sit any longer. This was a great meal in one of my favorite restaurant designs ever. I wish we had gone earlier because we would have been able to experience it more than once. Highly recommended.

Les 2 Freres has a second location in old-town Aix-en-Provence called Le Restaurant 37 at 1 Rue Entrecasteaux (
http://www.les2freres.com/) which features a limited menu that clearly facilitates a focus on quality and innovative presentation. We've gone to Le 37 four times. The soups we had, melon and gazpacho, were wonderfully fresh and beautifully presented. Aubergine wrapped goat cheese was complex and tasty. The main courses - for example, the first time we went we had beef and salmon tartare - were excellent. And the desserts seduced us into finishing them even though we should have stopped because we had eaten everything that came before. Great wine list. Service was good and the decor was comfortable French modern, with draped fabrics, nice lighting, and excellent and rather unique round booths.

Le 37's terrace is large and pleasant, created out of whole cloth from the sidewalk (that is a pun of sorts; they do a great job of walling off the terrace with waist-high fabric), so on those days when you just have to eat outside, and you want high quality, modern food, this is the place to go. Recommended.

Le Passage (10 Rue Villars -- across Cours Mirabeau in the cinema district, tel 04 42 370 900, http://www.le-passage.fr/.) A modern three story restaurant (and cooking school, etc., see post) that has the best lunch deal so far: 12 Euro 50 for three courses plus drink. This is the place to go when you want somewhere air-conditioned, great value, good quality food, and close by.

The interior is a converted industrial space that clearly has had a tremendous amount of effort put into renovating it, marred only by horrendous spherical lights that I suspect, given the choices displayed in the rest of the decor, are more a consequence of running out of budget than running out of taste. (I'd change out the spindly dried plants, too, but they are not the ambience emergency the lighting is.) Lest you think these comments indicate an unpleasant interior, no, it is more like someone with a great suit that makes the polyester tie they chose really stand out. (In the interests of objectivity, we were just there today for a cooking school, and one of the French woman just volunteered how much she liked the white ball lights. But I stand by my opinion ...)

The first time we went there, our youthful server was unable to operate his PDA terminal quickly enough to capture our order, which he therefore got wrong, and he clearly had a memory like a sieve. But the one error was quickly corrected, and the watchful and very involved presence of the manager kept it all on track. I'm not expecting Michelin star level service for 12 Euros 50. The second time, the service was absolutely fine. Recommended.

L'Opera doesn't have a terrace, so on these hot days, when most everyone wants to eat outside, they are lightly attended. Well, eveyone is missing out. A beautiful modern interior and Provencal food with Moroccan influences, all at a good value, makes this one of the better restaurants in Aix. There is a reason that a couple came in while we were eating and asked the waiter if they could just have dessert and a coffee "to salvage our evening after having a bad experience at one of the restaurants on Cours Mirabeau." (They clearly hadn't read my rules.) The waiter said "you know those restaurants are just for tourists" before graciously seating them. Recommended.

Mitch is at 26 Rue des Tanneurs (telephone 04 42 26 63 08), right off the square that has Le Village and Edyko Armenian/Greek. They completely transform their section of street for their outdoor seating, even putting up bamboo screens against the wall across from the restaurant. Mitch is about modern, elegant, and quality dining. The food is excellent and innovative; no pea soup at Mitch. Instead the pea "cappuccino" is served in a tall glass carafe with creme fraiche on the top and a straw. With the addition of some salt, which I seldom feel the need to do, and a little poking with the straw to mix in the creme fraiche, I found it a tasty, even compelling experience. On a different visit, I had ceviche, which was as good as the best ceviche I've had (at Las Ventanas in Mexico). The main courses also had innovative presentation, the wine list was short but good, and I loved the desserts. But it was sometimes hard to concentrate because it was a Saturday night in July at the intersection of two important streets and the Square de Tanneurs, and the tourists smart enough to navigate away from Cours Mirabeau and the locals were walking by in roughly equal numbers, and the people watching was just fantastic. Recommended.

Best Traditional Restaurants in Old-town Aix-en-Provence

We have two favorites. One is Chez Grand-mere at 11 Rue Isolette which was recommended to us by Willy Tourette, one of the pastry chefs at The Passage (which see in Restaurants.) On a charming square, with, no surprise, a fountain (if you've been Aix, you know that there are more fountains in Aix than just about anywhere), this is quintessential terrace dining in Aix. The trilogy of soups was excellent. The "mille feuille" of tomato, egg plant, and mozzarella was fresh and tasty, though there was no pastry - the mille feuille refers to layers of vegetables - and my daube de boeuf (which Willy recommended) was tremendous, a wonderful melding of flavors, presented in a covered metal casserole with adjacent plate. Apparently, their menu tilts more toward the "gastronomic" once the tourists leave. Certainly the kitchen has the ability to reflect whatever trend they wish - their focus on Provencale cuisine is to all of our benefit. If you are here only one night, and want to have the real outdoors Aix experience, go to Chez Grand-mere for dinner. Highly recommended.

Our other favorite is Chez Mathe at 14 Rue Felibre Gault (tel. 04 42 27 35 27). Newly opened, it has a light, crisp interior and a few tables outside. Mathe herself presides over the front of the house with great charm, and her presence is one of the reasons we like going there. Another one is that the food is excellent, both high quality and modestly priced. Chez Mathe is very accomodating to children, so if you add all these up, you can see why we keep going back. Highly recommended.

Malta is at 28 Place des Tanneurs (tel. 04 42 61 35 19) and used to be a bar / pizzeria, but has become a high quality restaurant with a liquor license. We so enjoyed it that we had dinner there twice in three days. Both times we started with a Mojito that was excellent and our only mixed drinks in our entire stay in Aix. They came with a glow-stick stirrer - one of the reasons the girls wanted to go back the second time. I had a beef with mushroom sauce that was the special, and I cleaned my plate. Stri enjoyed the fish, and the girls had pasta, which made them happy and allowed them to eat enough to have dessert. Recommended.

Le Basilic Gourmand (6 Rue du Griffon, off Paul Bert, one block west of Marie Curie) is another of the three restaurants found for Aix in the Michelin Green Book. Along a quiet back street that is a not quite nice enough to be called "quaint" is this charming little restaurant offering a traditional menu that pays extra attention to presentation. The waiter props a chalk board with the menu on a nearby chair, and before long, excellent food starts arriving. The seared foie gras was some of the best I've had in Aix, and it automatically came with a glass of Sauterne. The "St. Jacques" and shrimp appetizer was good, though it required a little too much effort to shell the shrimp. My beef was high quality and perfectly cooked. Stri's dorado (like sole) was equally good, but again, she had to expend a little more effort than I did because it was not de-boned. A very limited wine selection, but the Bordeaux we ordered was quite good, and at 21 Euro for 375 ml, reasonably priced for the quality. It was served too warm, though, in a tradition I've noticed throughout France outside of Paris. We went back a second time, with a similar, and equally good experience. Recommended.

Le Village is in the Place des Tanneurs and offers high quality Provencal food at reasonable prices. We've gone for both lunch and dinner, and enjoyed it. I had the beef tartare and was given all the condiments, in their original containers, to prepare it just to my liking. It has the feel of authenticity without any fanciness or pretention. Not much accomodation for children -- if they don't like traditional Provencal cooking, they won't find much. Recommended.

Les 2 Garcons is an institution, around since the 1700s, in a great location on Cours Mirabeau, arguably the most significant street in Aix. You've got to go there. And have coffee. Then you can say you did, 'cause everyone has to. Cezanne used to hang out there, after all. Otherwise, it is expensive and not at all distinguished in food, service, or presentation.

Le Tire Bouchon (7 Rue Félibre Gaut at Rue des Cordellieres) has a tiny little street-front with a spiral stair-case that descends into a large ancient (Ari says "medieval" but all I know is that it is very old) arched-ceilinged room, well-lit and only slightly smelling of age. The food was very good and quite reasonable, and eating in such an environment stimulates all the "we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto" sentiment of the traveler looking for something different.

Le Vielle Auberge. One of four restaurants for Aix mentioned in the Michelin Green Book, it no longer is in business.

Jacquou Le Croquant is at 2 Rue de L'Aumone Vielle (04 42 27 37 19) and is open every day for lunch and dinner. We've gone twice, but were somewhat disappointed each time. They have a very charming little courtyard, and the staff is nice, but the food just didn't meet our expections. I had a foie gras that was just OK, and duck, which is their specialty, didn't hit the quality we expected. The salads were modest in size and quality. They did have toys for the children, which is highly unusual in Aix. I wish Jacquou Le Croquant was better, but right at this juncture, I can't recommend it.

L'Amphitryon is at 2 rue P. Doumer, close to tourist central which should have been a clue, but I'd read good things about it so we decided to try it. We were disappointed in the courtyard terrace; it was crowded with sun shades and was not as pleasant as others we'd been in such as Le Riad or Jacquou le Croquant. The food was fine but not great and it was expensive. All in all, I'd give L'Amphitryon a pass.

When we first got here, we ate at a few of the many places side by side in the Forum des Cardeurs and a couple that look out over the Rotunde, which quickly gave us the determination to find real, non-touristy food in Aix, and we have. See also my posts on contemporary restaurants, ethnic ones, and a few restaurants that merited individual reviews.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Garmin Nuvi 270 GPS

Before our trip, I went onto EuropCar's very nice web system for reserving cars and found out that adding a navigation system cost over 250 Euros, so I decided to buy one instead for almost the same amount of money. I got a Garmin Nuvi 270 and it turned out to be an excellent choice.
1) We stayed in the old section of Barcelona for a week before coming to Aix, and even our taxi driver couldn't get us to our apartment. But the Garmin did.

2) I'd put it in pedestrian mode and just take off, knowing we could get back to our apartment. I was stunned how often the Garmin got a useful signal from the sliver of sky between the buildings lining the twisty little streets. The biggest problem was that it often knew where we were, but wasn't sure of the heading. I took to using it in "North up" mode.

3) The first few days in Aix, we didn't even think of leaving the apartment without it, walking all over old town, putting in the addresses of restaurants we wanted to try, and marking things we wanted to go back to as 'favorites.'

4) Whenever we want to drive somewhere, the Garmin is incredibly useful. I sometimes have it avoid toll roads, but still take us on the fastest remaining route, which has taken us on picturesque little roads that only take minutes longer.

5) I remembered how my friend Mahboud had said he'd used a nav system in Germany, in effect hopping from castle to interesting attraction to town, or whatever, and he was right that you can think differently about exploring because you have a nav system.

6) The 270 has a lot of points of interest in it, but I wish I had bought the Garmin Travel Guide SD card for France. https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=8474. Would have been worth the $80.

7) Riding my bicycle around Aix, I keep the Garmin in my pocket and refer to it periodically. I sometimes look at a Michelin map and find some little town way out on a "D" road and plug it in, start riding in that vague direction, then let the Garmin help me get onto the road I want. Then I'll plug in the garage where I keep the bike and keep riding away until the time it says I'll return is when I'm supposed to be back. Or I'll head out on one road, and then ride in a rough arc with Aix at the center, and let the Garmin give me a new route back.

8) I wish Garmin made a bicycle mount for the Nuvi 270. I have, and like, a Garmin Edge on my bike (I brought it with me) but the Edge's strong points are the Nuvi 270's weak points (the Edge is good at performance display and data collection and the 270 is good at mapping and route planning.) I felt a little "over-instrumented" with two GPS systems, but together, I kept a record of my trips and got to interesting places.

9) My only quibbles are few and small: a couple of data errors (our little street is correctly coded as one way, but it is actually one way the other way), no satellite status view like on the Edge (it took a very long time to lock the position the first time I turned it on in Spain), and the algorithm for determining direction of movement is clearly optimized for cars and not walking, which makes 3D view while walking rather less useful. That's it!

If you want to get the most out of a trip, get a GPS, and I personally recommend the one that I got, the Garmin Nuvi 270.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Best of Aix-en-Provence Restaurants List

A good number of the restaurants we've tried in our stay here have had some distinctive quality that brings us back, depending on our mood or desires. In this post, I'll list those "best of" qualities. If you want more information on the individual restaurants, see my other posts.

Le Formal (32 rue Espariat ) is the best restaurant in Aix-en-Provence.

Les 2 Freres (4 av. Reine Astrid - 10 minutes walk outside old town) is the best modern restaurant design in Aix-en-Provence and has food consistent with the quality of the environment.

Chez Grand-mere (11 Rue Isolette) is the best traditional Provencal restaurant with outdoor seating in Aix-en-Provence.

Le Passage (10 Rue Villars -- across Cours Mirabeau in the cinema district) is the best lunch value in Aix-en-Provence, and an economical modern refuge from touristy cuteness.


Le Riviera (in Hotel Le Pigonnet at 5 Avenue du Pigonnet, www.hotelpigonnet.com) has the best garden dining in Aix-en-Provence, with truly excellent food.

La Medina de Fes (5 rue Campra) is the best dinner value in Aix-en-Provence, and some of the finest Moroccan food I've had.

Le Restaurant 37 (1 Rue Entrecasteaux) has the best contemporary food served on a terrace in old-town Aix-en-Provence.

Mitch (26 Rue des Tanneurs) has the best combination of people watching and good food in Aix-en-Provence.

Chez Mathé (14 rue Félibre Gault) is the most welcoming (and most child-friendly, yet still great for adults) restaurant in Aix-en-Provence.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Best Ethnic Restaurants in Aix-en-Provence

La Medina de Fes (5 rue Campra, near the Hotel de Ville and around the corner from the Basilic Gourmand, tel. 04 42 21 68 58) merits the designation of a find. This charming little restaurant, with only a few tables outside, specializes in Moroccan food. One brother cooks and the other waits on tables. The vegetable (legume) cous cous is fluffy and flavorful, coming in the traditional pottery with hot vegetables below sending steam into the cous cous above. I got a lamb and apricot tagine that was flawless, perfectly balanced and just delicious. The Moroccan wine was reasonable, but not of the quality of French wines. We had a pastilla dessert, mint tea, even a fig liqueur (which I didn't care for much; it reminded me of grappa.) Then the bill came, and what a pleasant surprise! This is a great little restaurant. Highly recommended.

Once La Medina de Fes closed for its annual vacation, we started going to Le Riad, another Moroccan restaurant, at 21 Rue Lieutaud (tel. 04 42 26 15 79). A modest doorway disguises the large, pleasant restaurant inside, with old stonework, including a special side room with traditional seating, and a charming courtyard large enough to hold 20 or so tables. We found the food to be quite good, perhaps not quite as authentic as La Medina de Fes, but still very enjoyable, enhanced by the pretty and comfortable environment.

Edyko serves Greek and Armenian food, with a large number of tables outside at the Place des Tanneurs. We ate there three times, twice having the Greek tasting menu with consists of large numbers of small plates. The hardworking and pleasant staff combined with reasonably-priced and high-quality food made this a good experience. Recommended.

We didn't go to Yamanota but we kept hearing it was truly great Japanese restaurant.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Funny Man

Today I saw Ari and Nicki go right past Funny Man, appearing not to notice that he was making little horns on his head and pointing at Nicki. Perhaps they're getting tired of the game, though they may have been oblivious as six- and seven-year-olds can be.

Funny Man is what the girls call him, and I don't know his real name, though I think Stri does. Our first day here, we arrived in our apartment to an odd assortment of things in the cupboards; a bottle of mint syrup, some random spices, a box of Kellogg's Special K, whatever the last people to stay here didn't consume, and the owners thought shouldn't be thrown away.

I headed out on a shopping expedition, getting turned around in all the narrow old streets and buying milk, water, eggs, cereal, soap in a store many blocks further away than the closest one, which is the one that Funny Man runs. By the time I had carried back my haul, my fingers were white and hurting. Buying water and carrying it for blocks now seems incomprehensible, but on our first day here, it seemed like the right thing to do.

There are many little grocery stores, tucked in here and there, some associated with a chain such as Vival, and some independent, such as Funny Man's, which carries the grandiose name, repeated twice, of Alimentation General, though the most prominent features are the chicken roaster outside and a large yellow blow-up can of "Dark Dog" energy drink strapped to the door. Funny Man's is open about 12 hours a day, seven days a week, and carries a rather random example of various staples in small sizes and things that might distinguish this store from those just a block or so away. Once, there was a bottle of Canadian maple syrup on the shelves, the first we'd seen, but not again, though they did get more for us later as a favor.

Ari's first real independent expedition here in Aix (being seven, and older, she got to go before Nicki) was to go down four flights of stairs, carefully cross the street, walk up to Funny Man's, and get something, I can't remember what. She had to order in French and pay in Euros, and the grin on her face didn't fade for a long time upon returning having successfully accomplished her feat. Stri and I had been watching with both anxiety and pride from the window and but as soon as we heard the downstairs door buzzer, we pretended to be casually unconcerned.


Here is a picture of the girls on an expedition to get a roast chicken, taken from the window of our apartment.

Clearly Funny Man found the girls cute, and would give them candy or a present of fruit even if the girls were just walking by. He would gesture at them, a little angel gesture, making small flapping wings with his hands up near his shoulders alternating with creating a halo with an index finger and then pointing at them. Then he'd gesture to himself and make little horns, like a bull or a devil. Over the weeks, this transmogrified into Funny Man pointing at Nicki and making the bull/devil signs, to which she responds by making the angel signs and pointing to herself, not just once or twice, but with a continuous fluidity possible only by the very young and practiced, almost like a talisman.

Now, even Nicki has gone to Funny Man's on her own, once three times in a row because she kept forgetting something after stubbornly refusing to make or carry a list. Though her neglect may have been intentional to go again a second time, she clearly didn't want to go a third, and it was only because her sister volunteered to go that she mustered the effort to go up and down the stairs again. Now, Stri will say "we need some milk, who's going to Funny Man?" and gets a chorus of "me, me!" in response.

One of the best things about being in Aix as long as we have is getting to see the texture of life here. I can't imagine Aix without Funny Man hanging out in front of his store, greeting those who walk by, especially anyone here for more than a day or two. I have a feeling the girls, especially Nicky, will be making little angel gestures for years to come.

Another great bike ride in Provence

This may have been my favorite yet: I headed out D17 from Centre Ville to Eguilles and kept going on D17, aka Route de Pelissane. Beautiful fields, ruins, corn fields, wineries, and vistas. Long, straight, relatively quiet roads. At Les Quatre Thermes, I turned left on D67 and headed up to the pass, only to be stunned by a beautiful view of the Aix valley, and a swooping road intertwined with an old open canal filled with sparkly water that disappeared periodically into the rock faces decorated with arches and sculpted figures at the keystones. It was different and wonderful. Intertwining above and below the canal, with the view beyond, was magical. At the bottom, I road through Coudoux and headed back into town on D10. About 45 kilometers of pure cycling joy.

Children's Activities Near Aix-en-Provence

We have two small girls, ages six and seven, and wanted to give them a chance to interact with other children, practice their French, even to learn something. We found three programs, and they participated in them for one week each. Generally, these programs are for locals, but they've been quite welcoming to us.

Oh! Les Papilles is located in old-town Aix at 25 rue des Cordeliers in what is also a children's bookstore (tel. 04 42 93 12 76). They do art, and read, and make a "gouter" or snack, often crepes. It is for children three and older, and they offer two sessions each day during the summer, one from 10 am to noon, and the other from 2:15 to 4:15. Our girls loved it, and it was very convenient, working pretty much as a drop-in program. Sometimes there were four or five children, and sometimes only our two. Convenient location if you're in old town. Recommended.

Bab'Art is located at 37 Bd A. Briand, just across the street bordering the North side of the old town, and their phone number is 06 30 17 31 45. The offer classes in art, sculpture, dance (contemporary, hip hop, choreography, etc.), music and theater. Our girls went for a week and had a great experience. They didn't want to leave each day. This program is not offered in August.

Maison Lafon is in Luynes, a village about 10 minutes away by car. Once you make the commitment to get the children there, you're rewarded with a program that is small and impressively well-run. Some of the young teens were doing work that amazed me with its quality. Our girls went here for a week, too, and loved it. Their only disappointment was that they didn't get to do mosaic work like the older kids.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

A great bike ride in Provence

This ride combined some nice vertical, beautiful views of the wine country of Provence, and good cycling roads. Total about 40 km, and 1870 feet total ascent.

I left Aix-en-Provence on D7 (aka Route d'Avignon) toward Eguilles, and right as I got to the town limits, went right on D543 toward Rognes, and after a quick detour to ride around Rognes (which is a cute and very quiet little village), headed out of the big roundabout outside Rognes on D15 and almost immediately turned right onto D14 (aka Route de Beaulieu) which goes right by the Beaulieu winery. Through the outskirts of Puyricard (where the wonderful chocolatier is based) and swooped into Aix on D14.

Gorgeous and fun.

Le Riviera (Hotel Le Pigonnet)

Last night, we went to Le Riviera, the restaurant associated with Hotel Le Pigonnet (5 avenue de Pigonnet, www.hotelpigonnet.com, +33 (0)4 42 59 02 90), that was recommended to us multiple times, most recently by a woman whose charming five-year-old daughter, Meela, was in one of our cooking classes. We had a great time. We were seated in a very beautiful garden for our 8:30 reservations, and given the beauty of the setting and quality of the food, I wasn't surprised at all that the restaurant was full by 9:15 or so. This restaurant is not within walking distance of old-town Aix, especially in dinner attire, though it is only a five or six minute drive.

After an amuse bouche of crab that was fine but not stunning, I had a foie gras terrine that included a savory version of creme brulee and Stri had 'canneloni' with a leek theme that included a little glass of warm foamy soup. There were both very nicely presented on black slate, and we greatly enjoyed them. My beef main course was some of the best beef I've had in Aix, cooked perfectly medium rare (if that is what you like, order your meat "seen-yon") with some excellent seared foie gras alongside. Stri enjoyed her turbot.

When we were handed the dessert card, one choice mentioned 'tomate.' We asked our waiter if it really was tomator and he said it was. So we decided to order it (to share, as is our custom), rather than go for the safe choice of chocolate, and I'm very glad we did. It was both delicious and fun, and made me wish we also tried the one based on beets. What arrived was a sweetened tomato terrine topped by a lighter, and also sweetened, tomato mousse, drizzled with a tomato sauce which had some additional ingrediants that I had trouble identifying but definitely worked. Even if this was served in a normal way, I would have been happy and impressed. But when the waiter walked over, the dessert was emitting a fog! The tapered glass container with the dessert was placed in another glass bowl that had dry ice and water in it, that both kept it cool and looked good.

Wine is another strong point. I was impressed at the number of quality half bottles on the wine list. We were able to find a very reasonable Chez Simone white and a '95 of one of the La Tour winerys' reds in 375 ml.

I would only change two things: 1) Service: overall, the service was quite good, but our waiter consistently didn't notice that our wine glasses were empty. The bottles were within easy reach on a service table, so this wasn't much of a hardship, but it wasn't consistent with the quality of the restaurant. 2) Lighting in the garden. The beautiful garden was well-lit at night, but the quality of the lighting design detracted somewhat. The lights along the main walkway were too blue and made the foliage look false. I counted four different lighting technologies used in the garden (incandescent, halogen, CFL, and metal vapor/halide - the ones that were too blue.) It wouldn't take much to fix this. We went for a walk in the garden after dinner, encouraged by the Maitre D', which was a perfect ending to a great evening.

We spent slightly over 200 Euro for the two of us, all up, and there was no doubt in our mind that we enjoyed it more than Clos de la Violette in every respect. It was good enough that we even compared it to Le Formal in our post-dinner conversation, but Le Formal's more innovative and modern cuisine keep it at the top of the list. Still, we highly recommend Le Riviera.

By the way, Hotel Pigonnet seems like a great place for a honeymoon or romantic getaway. The building is an old Bastide, or summer mansion, that has the combination of age, quality, and attention that is hard to duplicate, the location is excellent, being both close to everything and quiet, and, as said before, the gardens are beautiful. This would be my first choice for a romantic hotel in Aix of the few I've seen.

Firefighting in France

Yesterday, on a bike ride from Centre Ville Aix-en-Provence, I had a common experience. A Pompeurs (firefighting) truck, siren blaring, blasted through the intersection in front of me. I didn't think much of it, since I've seen more fire trucks in a month that I do in six months in California.

This time, though, more trucks came rumbling by so about three minutes later I looked back and saw a column of smoke, mainly black with a little white. I decided to give my curiousity full reign and turned around to spectate. I rode onto a street with a knot of spectators looking at the back of a three story house with smoke and flames shooting out of the windows of the top floor.

I watched for about fifteen minutes, and thought I might record a few of those "little things" (I'm thinking of the conversation about Europe in Pulp Fiction when I put that in quotes. Travolta says "Its the little things that you notice") that struck me as different, just images, really:

1) We're a third of the way down a pretty, tree-lined residential street; around the corner and most of the way down the next block is the driveway that leads to the house that is on fire. Trucks keep arriving, and they would stop at our little knot of spectators with a view of the smoke and flames, and people from the crowd would yell to driver "to the right, to the right." The driver would wave in appreciation and drive off.

2) A few minutes after I arrived, two guys, on foot in full firefighting suits, come hoofing it around the corner pulling a two-wheeled cart with a pretty big reel of canvas hose on it. As they get closer, one of them lets go and jogs ahead with a wrench to the hydrant near me, across the street from the fire, and the other yells "m'aidez" to the spectators. A middle-aged guy runs over and helps pull the little cart up to the hydrant. I try to imagine an American firefighter yelling to a civilian for help.
I took a picture with my cell phone.

3) Soon, there is a hose across the street, down a nearby driveway, and over a short wall to the back of the house. The firefighters who set it up have disappeared. A good five minutes have passed since I arrive, probably ten since the first truck passed me. The whole time I've been watching, the only active fire suppression I've seen is a fairly small stream of water directed up at the eves from the ground. An old lady near me says something about the firefighters being concerned about a tank of gas in the house. Cars and motorcyles keep bumping over the hose, most slowing, some not. There are no policemen or firemen in sight.

4) Yet another firetruck arrives, and the spectators again shout "a droite" (to the right) but the driver waves them off. He stops before the hose and a couple of guys get out and put some plastic ramps under the hose and get back in. The truck bumps up over them and disappears around the corner. Some cars go over the ramps. Others avoid the ramps and go over the hose.

5) Another pair of fully outfitted firefighters with another, identical hose cart come trundling around the corner, down the street, see that there already is a hose attached to "our" hydrant, and turn around.

6) A "gas emergency" vehicle that appears to be part of the gas company arrives and goes down a nearby driveway, confirming the old lady's observation.

7) A platform arises near the house with a fireman on top who appears to be spraying the roof. It has been at least ten minutes since I arrived, and flames keep shooting out of the windows.

8) A caravan of three identical very small Renaults, painted red with a blue light on the dash, arrive and park in front of us. They look to my American-conditioned eyes as the vehicles that would clearly be assigned to the newest, most junior people, probably office workers. So it startled me when tough-looking firemen, clearly senior, stepped out of each car and started discussing the fire.

9) Now the color of the smoke becomes whiter, and no flames are coming out of the windows. Whatever they are doing is working. Another couple of minutes, and the volume of smoke is clearly less. It has been about fifteen minutes since I arrived, and perhaps twenty since I saw the first fire truck.

I got back on my bike and rode on.


Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Cycling in Aix-en-Provence

I rented a bicycle - a real road bike, quite serviceable despite its age - from Aix Prit Velo (17 rue Constantin) in Centre Ville. I've been picking directions and getting out of town on rides of varying length. So far, my favorite is to head out D10.

The first time, I headed out a little past the town of Vauvenargues (cute, but nothing to write home about, despite the fact that Picasso owned the castle there and is buried on the grounds.) The next time, I kept going and then turned left on D11. What a great, steep little rode through the massifs (limestone mountains.) Gourgeous, and completely untravelled. The pavement quality was quite good.

I went over the summit, and enjoyed the downhill into Jouques. I didn't find the best way from there back into Aix; the streets were too busy as I went through Peyrolles and Meyrargues. An investigatory challenge for a future ride. The entire trip was about 36 miles (60 km).

Another time, I kept going on D10 and then turned right when it teed into D23. A couple of sections on D10 were quite steep uphills, but turning around at the summit and gazing back down at the valley made it worthwhile. The downhill on D23 was world class; smooth payment and a series of fast s-curves through beautiful woods. I dropped about 800 feet in that one descent. Wow!


I went through Pourrieres and turned right on D7. Since this ride literally circles Mt. Sainte Victoire, I experienced a series of spectacular vistas of this famous massif. D7 was neither too busy nor too steep, but it had one problem that almost caused me to walk; the Mistral (famous Provencal winds) had kicked up. When I reached a couple of plateaus, I was running into it at the worst possible angle, about 30 degrees off a direct headwind. Every big puff would blow me sideways and cause me to decelerate simultaneously, creating real problems in stability. I really started to wonder if I could ride this section, and at one point, did stop riding just to recover from the concentration it took to stay on the road.

Soon enough, though, I was back to lower altitude and then into the outskirts of Aix, which were quite beautiful, with large villas and many trees. This ride was about 40 miles (65 km), and truly a rewarding experience.