The "wagons-restaurants" which are attached now to most
of the express trains, no doubt have cut into the business of the buffet
restaurant; but as a contrast to the ordinary British station
refreshment- and dining-room the Calais buffet deserves to be mentioned.
Boulogne
At Boulogne there is a restaurant in the Casino, but I think it adds
very little to the revenues of the establishment. Most people take their
meals contentedly or discontentedly in their hotels, but the little
restaurant on the pier, which used to belong to the widow Poirmeur but
is now the Restaurant Garnier, with its miniature terrace and its
windows which look out on to the waves when the tide is up, has an
individuality of its own, and is one of the haunts of the gourmet who
enjoys a meal with unusual surroundings. In the winter the little
restaurant hibernates. If customers appear the wife of the proprietor
cooks dinner or lunch for them, and cooks very fairly; but with the
advent of summer a cook is engaged for the season, and it is a matter of
importance to the sojourner in Boulogne whether that cook ranks as
"fair" or "good." He generally is good. Fish, of course, is always fresh
at Boulogne and generally excellent in quality, and the shell-fish are
above suspicion--at least I never heard of anybody suffering from eating
_moules_,--therefore a _Sole Normande_ or any similar dish generally
forms part of a _dejeuner_ on the pier, and this with an _entrecote_ and
an _omelette au rhum_ makes a fine solid sea-side feast.
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