After two meals at the Midi (filet de sandre in veal jus being the highlight of the second), I had already begun worrying about the restaurant’s next 75 years, more perilous than its first. For a start, the Perriers have only one child, a daughter, who is an optician; end of the line there. Secondly, this is not prime tourist country (number 9 of the Ardèche’s top 27 attractions, the Living Museum of Sheep and Wool, sounds even more missable when the description is in locally rendered English: “The sheep, the whool [sic] and the man & a passionated story presented with fun and pedagogy”). So the restaurant relies on gastronomes from afar and loyal locals. This results in unevenness of bookings: On a Thursday night in mid-May, we were two of only six diners; whereas Saturday lunch and dinner were full. Thirdly, there is the problem known as “les 35 heures,” which is particularly punitive to this sort of restaurant. French employment law surprisingly offers no loopholes to the trade, so the old days of necessary flexibility—or, if you prefer, the old days of galley-slave conditions, with bullied potato peelers working a 60-hour week—are gone forever. Restaurants like the Midi are obliged to close from Sunday lunchtime until Tuesday lunchtime, plus Friday evenings as well in low season. This makes the traditional three-day demi-pension arrangement almost impossible to fit in outside high season. It is also a turnaround from the traditional rule whereby a hotelier might close his restaurant to nonresidents but was always obliged to serve food to those staying beneath his roof.
It’s not sentimentality, or nostalgia for old France, that wants a place like the Hôtel du Midi to survive, and flourish, and remain open seven nights a week—although there is a bit of that. It’s more a desire for a choice of traditions, for a greater democracy of cooking (and of bath mats). As we were leaving, we noticed a poster in the hall showing a cheery lineup of the Ardèche’s top 20 chefs. I asked Mme. Perrier which was her husband. “Surely you recognize him?” she replied. We confessed that we hadn’t set eyes on him all the time we’d been there. “Ah,” she said, “that’s because he’s always in the kitchen.” A different tradition indeed: not promoting himself, just turning out unseen his imperturbable classics.
Hôtel du Midi
Place Seignebos Lamastre 07270 France
(011-33) 4-75-06-41-50
Fax: (011-33) 4-75-06-49-75
Closed December through mid-February and Mondays and Sunday evenings. Menu ranges from $25 to $57.
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