The French still lunch , a meal which has nearly disappeared in Ireland over the last thirty years.
Not for the French a quick bite of an apple and a cup of coffee at midday , no, they like to go the whole hog and have starter , main course , dessert and coffee and they like to eat this at 12.00, not later.

Mind you I do understand why they are fairly famished at this time.
Since I have started to feed breakfast to French people I have noticed that it is not a great eating time for them and often they will look askance at my fruit, fromage frais, and fresh juice and their only early morning sustinance is a croissant crumbled into their coffee.

We Irish have lost the practice of lunching but , as we now live here, we have realised it is a meal well worth rediscovering .

Lunching out in France is one of the great French bargains.

We did it twice last week , in two very different restaurants.

On Saturday last, with our friends Clive and Sue , we decided to go very up market and eat in Restaurant Octopus in Beziers , one of only two restaurants in that city which has a single Michelin star.

It was a perfectly enchanting experience.
Highlights were the amuse bouche of a warm softly poached quails egg on a small short bread tartlet with a wonderful herbed hollandaise, a starter of little perfectly boned sardines with a very successful hazelnut dressing, a main course of tender beef on a bed of creamy celeriac with crisps of the same vegetable served with a demiglaze of remarkable intensity.
For dessert I had a dark spoon of chocolate icecream on an iced parfait of vanilla and thyme which I can still taste- delicious.
This cost €30 a head (more for wine) which, for such an exceptional meal , was , I think , a bargain.
(Dinner in the same restaurant would have been at least three times that.)

Fast forward to yesterday lunchtime when Síle and I found ourselves in Serignan at lunchtime and were disappointed to find the hotel there was shut for it’s Fermeture Annuelle.
There seemed only one cafe open, the Brasserie Fop, not at all prepossessing outside, in fact downright shabby but when when we stuck our heads in the door it was steamy and buzzy with the red formica tables all full of locals eating lunch.
A very good sign.
We were squashed in by Madame on to the end of a table and ordered the Formule du Jour which included a demi of vin rouge , a starter main course and dessert and cost €13 per head.
I started with a half a camembert cheese, liberally flavoured with parsley and garlic, and hot and melting on a slice of toasted baguette , next I went for the calves liver, cooked a point in butter with just enough of the pan juices to make a delicious sauce for the crisp chips it came with.
For dessert I had an unremarkable but home made chocolate mousse.
Again a bargain, we left having paid for the lunch, including wine, just €26 for the two of us.

Which was the better value do you think ?

I am happy to be able to choose either.