28-03-12, 07:54 AM
Tom
Its my point really - you do have to know where to go in France. If you simply stick to main roads, the roadside cafe is few and far between. I was amazed in 2009 riding down to the Pyrenees on mostly N roads, just how few there were visible to the traveller, and they were not open at all on a saturday past 12 or on sunday . No doubt if one knew a particular town one would know where such is, but its not practical to do too much exploring on a time limit.In the alps or spain, generally there is much more choice and places open.Hence why macdonalds does a roaring trade on a weekend in France !...its actually quite sad for the reputation of french cuisine that all too often this is all which is available. I remember stopping at a cafe just past 12 in a small town in the south west of france, smelling wonderful cooking ...only to be told they were not serving food, only a drink! Its terrible for the tourist , but oh so typicallly french.- its their " le weekend" and sod everyone else ! The other thing you might see is a " frites" van, by the side of the road....hardly haute cuisine
My best experience was in 2005 where a small cafe did open its doors to us ( 11 bikers, all wet and miserable),en route to Orleans, after being shunned by several restaurants in Le Chartres( near Orleans) and provided a superb plat du jour on spec...but it was not at the roadside,and we encountered it by sheer chance.God bless that frenchman and his family!
Its my point really - you do have to know where to go in France. If you simply stick to main roads, the roadside cafe is few and far between. I was amazed in 2009 riding down to the Pyrenees on mostly N roads, just how few there were visible to the traveller, and they were not open at all on a saturday past 12 or on sunday . No doubt if one knew a particular town one would know where such is, but its not practical to do too much exploring on a time limit.In the alps or spain, generally there is much more choice and places open.Hence why macdonalds does a roaring trade on a weekend in France !...its actually quite sad for the reputation of french cuisine that all too often this is all which is available. I remember stopping at a cafe just past 12 in a small town in the south west of france, smelling wonderful cooking ...only to be told they were not serving food, only a drink! Its terrible for the tourist , but oh so typicallly french.- its their " le weekend" and sod everyone else ! The other thing you might see is a " frites" van, by the side of the road....hardly haute cuisine
My best experience was in 2005 where a small cafe did open its doors to us ( 11 bikers, all wet and miserable),en route to Orleans, after being shunned by several restaurants in Le Chartres( near Orleans) and provided a superb plat du jour on spec...but it was not at the roadside,and we encountered it by sheer chance.God bless that frenchman and his family!