In this drowsy setting, L'Eeu de France has installed its dining terraces at the water's edge, and they are charming indeed. Under the trees, protected by Striped umbrellas, a well-bedecked clientele savors with obvious relish the varied specialties of Monsieur Brousse. The escalope de veau an gratin seemed particularly good, but there was also a tempting choice of steaks, langoustes, ducks, and chicken in diversified dress. The service, by alert maids in black and white, was excellent. This is a year-round restaurant. A large and picturesque dining salon lakes care of the repose-seeking Parisians during the rainy season.
Donnemarie-en-Montois Seine-et-Marne)
The Parisian epicure with a new Citroen, Simca, or Peugeot 203 likes to huild his Sunday around a good fifty-mile drive in the country with a notable restaurant as his midday reward. This fact makes Sunday a prodigious occasion in the lives of everyone connected with the AUBERGE DU MONTOIS, from the patron-cbef down to the wrinkled old lady who shells the peas. This auberge is an unassuming spot, adjoining the rounded towers of the Porte-de-Provins in the hinterland town of Donnemarieen-Montois. But on Sunday the eager voluptuaries crowd the dining room and overflow into the garden. The reputation of Monsieur Barraud's gastronomic menu has spread widely during these post-austerity days in France. He offers a truly extraordinary prix fixe repast, from the first nibble of spiced sausage to the final triumph of an iced dessert. The crowning glory, however is based on the humble rel, transformed by the magic of the art of the pâtissier into a divine creation called pâté d'anguille a la facon du ptieur. Now don't sit there and tell me you don't like eel and never will! Not. at least, until you taste this remarkable sublimation of the slithering fellow. Monsieur Barraud takes voting eel, bones them, and piles them up horizontally, like cord wood. By a genuine tout de forcehe encases the group in a rich, flaky crust, which comes to the table hot and beautifully brown. The pâté is sliced crosswise and is accompanied by an unctuous cream sauce. It comes close to being the Dish of the Year as far as this provincial expedition is concerned. It might be wise to try the Auberge du Montois on a weekday, but don't miss it!
Senlis (Oise)
The historic treasures of the Oise outweigh its gastronomic riches, but the food-conscious traveler still finds a haven, and a good one, in (he larger towns. One of them is Senlis, an Old World site which is particularly gratifying to lovers of antiquity. There are still traces of its Gallo-Roman origin, and its twelfth-century cathedral is one of the noblest in France. Its château where the kings of France from Clovis to Henri IV maintained a resilience, is rather dismantled, but there are interesting churches galore. More than enough, in fact, for some churches have been converted into carpenter shops, movie houses, and market places'. Senlis is only a few miles from Chantilly, and the two can be combined in a day's trip from Paris. For your luncheon, in the course of such a pleasant excursion, look no farther than the HOTEL DU GRAND CERF, located on the main highway which runs through Senlis. It is a smiling establishment, built on classic lines with a beckoning bar and a well-lighted area devoted to dining salons and a garden. The owners are attentive, the food is good, and the wines are more than adequate.
One of the natives of Senlis told me of the local amusement at the rapid change which took place in this hotel alter the Liberation. It was filled with German officers all during the occupation, and two sentries stood constantly at stiff attention at the front door. After their abrupt departure, the management had barely time to clean the hotel and change the linen before officers from the American Ninth Air Force moved in. Two sentries no longer flanked the front door, but close scrutiny revealed that there was an American sentry on duly, all right. But he was in the lobby, sitting in a wicker chair and reading the Stars and Stripes. The individualistic French loved it!
Chantilly (Oise)
This cheerful, sophisticated lown, whose name has become synonymous with whipped cream, is equally celebrated for its château and for one of the most beautiful turfs in the world. Each spring the French Derby is run here, and the fervent thoughts of millions of Frenchmen are concentrated upon the result. A stupendous lottery is tied up with the race, and a new set of millionaires is created in an afternoon. The château de Chantilly, set in an imposing moat, is now a museum, and an extraordinary one. From one of its rounded pavilions the famous Condé rose diamond was stolen a few years back. The famed Le Nôtre designed the gardens, and the moat is populated with aged carp whose advanced years are a matter of debate. The guides like to tell you that some of them cate from the time of Louis XVI. Chantilly seems to be a place for superlatives. Its immense stables, built by Louis-Henri de Bourbon in the early eighteenth century, are the most impressive in France. When you come upon them, you are close to the best food in Chantilly, for there is an attractive little auberge built close to the towering walls of the King's stables. It is LE CYGNE ROYAL, known as favorably for its picturesque setting as for its painstaking cuisine. A trifle expensive, and hopelessly crowded on race days—when Senlis is your best bet—it is quiet and charming at other times. Here is a fine place to order the classic poulards de Bresse à la Vallée d'Auge.
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