Journeys in France

A fabulous experience of haute cuisine!

by Del and Tony

The recent death of Paul Bocuse, legendary chef, on 20th January 2018 brought back happy memories of a visit we made to his restaurant in 2013.

It was April when we went to Paul Bocuse's main restaurant in Lyon. He had four others: Nord, Sud, D'Est and Ouest.

Paul Bocuse - what can one say? Words cannot describe the experience, from the greeting, to the table, the service and the food - it was all unbelievable!

We took a taxi from our apartment and arrived fashionably on time at 20:00. Antoine (hereinafter called Tony) took a few photos of the establishment from the outside. We saw the great man as we were shown to our table upstairs. Tony decided he would see if he could get a photo of Paul Bocuse so he went downstairs to try to find him. Monsieur Bocuse did not speak a word of English but one of the maitre-D's translated for him and he agreed to have his photo taken but insisted that they be photographed together.

 

Tony returned to the dinner table where a brioche was served, light and tasteful, then we ordered.  We both ordered Homard à l'Armoricaine. Before the entree arrived we were served with a pea soup with truffles - delightful.

The lobster arrived and was brilliant. It was served to look like a complete lobster.

For mains, Del ordered Carré d'Agneau. The rack of lamb was served exactly how she wanted it. It was so tender it just melted in her mouth. Tony chose Rognons à la Dijonnaise: the kidneys were equally delectable.

By the time we had finished our mains, nous avons bien mangé, and just could not face cheese or desserts. Malheureusement. The Delicacies and Temptations (desserts) looked scrumptious as they passed us on a fabulous trolley.

The waiter brought each of us a bowl of Mousse au chocolat declaring it compulsory!  We struggled through it but could not eat any of the plate of chocolates he also put before us.

At this stage the great man was doing the rounds of his restaurant, which he apparently did each night. In his eighties, he was not cooking any more. When he came to our table Del said to him "Ça me fait une grande plaisir de vous voir." He smiled broadly and put his arm around Del and Del held his hand. Tony, bien sûr, took a photo for posterity.

 

We said our farewells and whilst waiting for our taxi the African doorman (dressed to the hilt) gave us a souvenir menu which we cherish.

A fabulous experience of haute cuisine!