What will I write in my diary tonight?
Last Thursday in Deauville was mostly about food!
Breakfast at Eric Kayser*, Deauville
It might have been a tad chilly outdoors but this was our favourite cafe and we didn’t want to leave @southfieldchat (aka B) behind. That would have added insult to injury. Thursday was “le vet” day, she had to go for her mandatory examination and worm treatment before travelling back to the UK.
Place Morny from the cafe (not as cold as it looks, that’s fake snow on the trees)
After breakfast we had a little urban walk,
made a note to buy our Gallette du Roi, and stopped for another coffee.
View from Le Cyrano**
After that it was time for “le vet”. Now we’ve been to France twice before with B and had two very different experiences at the vets. First time in Ile de Re was great with a nice young vet who did a very thorough examination and was kind and gentle; second time around in Bergerac, mmm a little less so, the vet had a blood spattered tunic and did a strange “flip” manoeuvre to check B’s bones. She was very much less than impressed. Happily Mme le Vet. in Deauville was lovely and certainly came top in B’s book. She hid the tablet in cheese! B would have stayed there all day.
“What? That was medicine?!?!?”
Wormed, passed fit and with all her papers signed (in all the right places ****) B was legal for re-entry to the UK and we were all free to enjoy the afternoon. So we a took little drive along the coast to Villerville where we popped into a Brocante and took B for a walk on the beach. Because that’s her favourite thing, home or away.
And well, we might have had a spot of lunch……
Villerville was the location for the 1960s movie un Singe en Hiver (in English “A Monkey in Winter” or “It’s Hot in Hell”) and the Cabaret Normand is a restaurant still, but we ate galletes in the creperie across the road.
Now you might think that after all that we’d be done with food for the day, and you could be justified in thinking that. But you’d also be wrong. Very, very wrong.
This was our last evening after all!
We’d booked at one of Deauville’s Michelin starred restaurants***: Maximin Hellio.
I don’t have many photos of the food, we were too busy enjoying it.
We’d chosen our menu when we booked but hadn’t realised it would be at the “chef’s table”, actually a very comfortable banquette looking into the kitchen. Normally that wouldn’t be my choice but this was interesting, and as things got less busy M. Hellio chatted to us, well mostly to MrS. I’m fairly proficient at reading menus and know more food vocab. than any other type but struggle with anything more than basic conversation. But even with my poor language skills I could appreciate the care and pleasure he put into his craft.
We left clutching our loot, boxed up petit fours we were too full to eat and an autographed Michelin guide. Stopping off in the Place for one last look at the Christmas lights and then back to the hotel and our beds.
A Bientôt
Marina xx
*Eric Kayser, Place de Morny, Deauville
***the other is L’Essentiel (more about that later)
****VERY IMPORTANT, we’ve seen dogs turned away at Calais even though they’d been to a vet but their passports had been stamped or signed in the wrong place.
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