Recuperation

Those who care to look for it will find the justification of France's culinary reputation in the provinces, at the riverside inns, in unknown cafes...in sea port bistros...and nowadays in cafes routiers, the lorry-drivers' restaurants. In such places the most interesting food of France is to be found.

I wander into the village. The épicerie is open in the mornings only and there is a café/restaurant next to it. So, I get ham and melon for dinner and decide to have lunch at the restaurant. I go back to the tent and elevate my sore ankle.

Lunchtime arrives. A Ricard for aperitif, followed by the set menu. For starter, salad d'eté: mozzarella, peach, tomato and mixed lettuce - almost enough on its own. Then cod in a chorizo sauce, accompanied by a mini mushroom soufflé, a vegetable samosa (entirely unlike any you would find in the U.K.) and polenta with olives (moist and brimming with rosemary). Not forgetting the small pitcher of red. For dessert, I decide against the cheeses and instead go for panna cotta with chestnut purée and chantilly. Followed, of course, by coffee.

I hobble back to the campsite and drowse the afternoon away. Impec!