Post 61. Le Havre 7. The Finer Things in Life - Food, Wine and Wine Shopping.
Rather than attempt to remember every course we ate at every restaurant over our seven days and nights in France - which would be impossible, as I took no notes and just a handful of photos - I will just mention the restaurants and maybe highlight something memorable.
Some days we ate out only once, and a few times we had the luxury of both lunch and dinner in a restaurant. Every restaurant we picked was either a bistro, a brasserie, a traditional French restaurant or a crêperie - we just wanted to taste the tried and trusted staples of French cuisine that we knew we liked. We would save all experimenting with new and exotic flavours for future destinations. Comfort food was the name of the game!
As already mentioned, we ate breakfast every day in the HomeExchange house, with everything bought from the local Carrefour City convenience store around the corner.
On the first day, after our walk around the new docks development, we spotted a place in one of the warehouses at 70 Quai Frissard that looked as traditional as you could get. It was called 3 Brasseurs Le Havre. It was part of a restaurants chain, but we won't automatically hold that against it. We had never visited one before and decided to give it a go. There was a great atmosphere about the place. We tried their unusual takes on Belgian waffles, which tasted great and were very filling. They also served a lovely house IPA.
That same evening, after our apéro in La Petite Rade in Sainte-Adresse, we walked back down to the beach and looked at the menus of all the beachfront restaurants before deciding on Le Bistrot de la Plage. Its lovely rooftop terrace caught our eye, but all the tables there were booked, so we contented ourselves with a table facing the sea on the downstairs deck.
Here, Tricia was in her happy place, surrounded by all kinds of seafood. She opted for a dozen oysters and said they were wonderful. As always, she offered me one, and as always, I declined. I opted for one of the fresh catches of the day instead.
I had sent my friend Bettina a photo taken on Le Havre beach, with Sainte-Adresse in the background. Bettina came from Sainte-Adresse originally, and when she replied, she recommended one of her favourite places overlooking the water. That made our choice of restaurant very easy the next evening. We just hopped on our local bus, and five or six stops later we were back in Sainte-Adresse.
Eugénie Brasserie is at the bottom of the cliffs, along a pathway from the main promenade, and we would likely never have discovered it without Bettina's recommendation. The setting was amazing, looking out at the sunset and watching the arrivals and departures of countless container ships. It was a reminder of how busy the port of Le Havre still is, despite the loss of the ferries. My two fish dishes were both lovely, but Tricia said hers were a bit hit and miss.
Another recommendation led us to our next dinner location. This one came from Florence, our Le Havre Greeter from day 3. It was a crêperie called La Bigouden, in what is said to be the oldest house in Le Havre, in the Quartier Saint-François. They served the usual menu of savoury galettes and dessert crêpes. My Crêpe Savoyarde was a little burnt underneath but still OK to eat, but my delicious dessert crêpe, Le Trou Normand, laced with Calvados (apple brandy), made up for it.
We had a wonderful, substantial lunch one day in a restaurant highly recommended by both TripAdvisor and Google Reviews. It was called Po'Potes and was very central. It was very busy with office workers, and we got one of the few tables left. We both had chicken dishes for a change and were very happy with them.
Another lovely lunch came after our guided walk. We just wandered around and chose L'Étable, as the place looked interesting and we were starving after 2.5 hours walking the streets. It had a simple brasserie lunchtime menu. We picked starters of egg mayonnaise and tomato burrata salad, followed by interesting variations on the croque monsieur / croque madame theme.
On our drive to Fécamp, we ate in another random restaurant by the seafront, called La Plage. We picked it mainly because it was still serving food until 4pm, and we were well past the traditional lunchtime slot of 12.00-14.00. As you would expect, the food was a little pricier, but once again it was delicious traditional French fare, including starters of soupe de poissons for Tricia and brie in filo pastry for me.
On our last night, we also chose our restaurant based on another recommendation, this time from Martine and Antoine, who we met for a drink in the late afternoon. Le Bistrot des Halles, just next to the covered Central Market was as traditional a French restaurant as you could get. We were the first customers of the evening, but it filled up very quickly. There was nothing you could fault about the place - excellent food, a lovely atmosphere and helpful, attentive staff. This was, hands down, my favourite dining experience of the whole week. I had duck cassoulet and Tricia had steak frites. I am very happy in the photo above, I swear - just very hungry!
The food in general all week was exactly what we were hoping for: simple, classic French fare that was tasty and comforting - nothing more, nothing less. Having left the car parked for all of our city days, it was a pleasure to be able to have a beer or a glass of wine without having to worry about driving.
Le "Booze Cruise"
Another reason for bringing our car was, of course, to bring back a supply of French wine to Ireland. Travelling within the EU, there are no fixed limits on the wine or other alcohol you can bring back home with you, as long as it is for your own personal use. Customs can ask questions if you bring back more than 90 litres of wine, so it is worth keeping your receipts, but in reality you won't ever run into issues.
In the past we used the wine warehouses in Cherbourg to stock up just before boarding the ferry. This time we felt there was better value to be had by simply shopping in local supermarkets and hypermarkets, as most French supermarkets hold an annual Foire aux Vins, or wine sale, every September, making it a good time to visit. So we paid visits to Intermarché, Super U, Hyper U, Carrefour and E.Leclerc. This year we found the best deals and the widest range in Leclerc.
We don't usually buy many bottles, focusing instead mostly on three-litre wine boxes, or "cubis" as they are called in France. This means we are just transporting the combined weight of wine and cardboard, without the added weight of glass bottles. The photo above shows this year's haul - should get us over Christmas and New Year anyway!
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