Lunch and a Show

Today we had an outstanding lunch at a restaurant in Le Fret, the Hostellerie de la Mer. It had been on our to-do list for a while – we had tried to eat here for J’s birthday, but they were full. So first, since J’s into that sort of thing, let’s talk about the lunch…

J started with smoked salmon and buckwheat blini, while M had fish soup. If you think “fish soup” doesn’t sound like much, think again. It was delicious alone, but when you added the toasts with aioli and the cheese – wow! J’s house-smoked salmon was excellent, but not on a par with the fish soup…

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The tide turned the other way with the mains, however. J had monkfish in a white sauce with white beans and sausage that was heavenly. M’s braised pork with cheesy potatoes and bacon was good, but not on the same level as his fish soup.

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Dessert was an Opéra (with coffee butter cream, caramel, sea salt) and Bailey’s irish cream ice cream for J and the taste of Brittany for M – apples, buckwheat crisp, caramel cream, and buckwheat ice cream. Followed by coffee. Oh, yeah…

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Now you might think that was a show in itself – and it was. But there was another one going on outside in the rain…

When we arrived, we found that the parking lot was right on the harbor edge, with no guard rails of any kind. This made M a little nervous, so he very carefully found a parking space away from the edge.

When we got out and started walking to the restaurant, we found someone else hadn’t been quite so smart:

We assume that since the car was all buttoned up, there wasn’t anyone in it when it went over. Our waiter told us it had just happened this morning.

As we had our desserts, a tow truck came with a nifty, long-extension crane and brought the car back up. (By that time the tide was coming in and the car must have been partially submerged…)

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From the back, you’d never know it had just been through such an ordeal. The windshield tells a different story, however.

We enjoyed our meal so much we’re going back on Friday for our celebratory last Breton meal. And we’ll definitely park as far away from the edge as possible again, with the parking brake on and the car in gear!