The proprietor,
M. Chandivert, was very anxious that I should add a _Caneton Rouennaise_
to the feast, but I told him that "to every town its dish." He gave me a
capital pint of red wine, and impressed on me the fact that he had
obtained a gold medal at some exhibition for his _andouillettes_. Caen
is the town of the _charcutiers_, and you may see more good cold viands
shown in windows, in a walk through its streets, than you will find
anywhere else outside a cookery exhibition. Caen is an oasis in the
midst of the bad cookery of Western Normandy; and the restaurant at the
Hotel d'Angleterre and the Restaurant de Madrid are very much above the
average of the restaurant of a French country town. In both restaurants
you can dine and breakfast in the shade in the open air, the Madrid
having a good garden, the Angleterre a great tent in the courtyard,--a
welcome change from the stuffy rooms, full of flies, of most Normandy
hotels. I have a most pleasant memory of a _Homard Americaine_, cooked
at the Hotel d'Angleterre, which was the very best lobster I ever ate in
my life. The old _chef_ who made the fame of the Angleterre has retired,
but his successor is said to show no falling off in the art of preparing
a good dinner. I would suggest to the wayfarer to breakfast in the
garden of the Madrid and dine at the Angleterre.
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