Fooded out

Well we have finally arrived at our final destination - foody completion, what we call fooded out. We can't eat anymore, talk about restaurants anymore, it is just too much. We are agreed that we will be eating many salads upon our return home. Almost 30 days, and I have to say I cooked a lot in our small kitchen. I made many fruit smoothies to compensate for the other foods we were eating. We ate many salads and lighter lunches and dinners, but we had so many wonderful meals here.

A few final foody notes:

Brasserie les Varietes, in St. Remy - we wandered in there one night looking for a light dinner and found, to our surprise, sort of a French diner. We are from New Jersey, the land of amazing diner food, where one can walk in and find almost anything on the menu, and usually in the front is a glass case full of fruit cups, chocolate pudding, and enormous slices of case. This brasserie reminded me of those diners. The menu was classic French brasserie food, steak tartare, omlettes, salads, and soups. We had a nice, but not expensive meal, sitting outside, watching St. Remy drive and walk by. When I ventured to the back to use the toilette, I noticed the class case, full of fruit cups, chocolate mouse, and other desserts, just like the New Jersey diners of home.

Another great restaurant in St. Remy - Bistro Decouvert - where they had an amazing menu for 25e, where I had a memorable fresh gazpacho, and a scallops over risotto dish that certainly equalled our favorite scallop dishes at Jonathan Waxman's restaurant in the NYC meatpacking district, Barbuto, topped off by a chocolate souffle. D. had a vegetable terrine with pesto, and a duck breast entree, concluded with a vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce. When we ate that meal we looked at each other and thought we had hit out food limit. We were not stuffed, as the portions were entirely reasonable, unlike American restaurants where the goal seems to stuff you, get you to overeat, and still have leftovers to bring home.

Last night we thought we had completed the food cycle, rather Wagnerian really, when we returned to Bistro des Alpilles in St. Remy for a final dinner. D.'s dish was a curry lamb with rice from the Carmague that he described as a 12 on a 1-10 scale, 10 being the best.

Today's finally foody venture was up to Lyon to visit D's father who was engaged in a barge cruise on the Rhone via Uniworld. Although we have driven through Lyon so many times over the years, and we know that it contains many great restaurants, it has never been convenient to stop. So here was out opportunity. In researching restaurants to go for a casual lunch, I happened to see in the New York Times online this week a frugal traveler article describing eating in Lyon and Paul Bocuse's new restaurant venture - OestExpress - his version of what he believes fast food should be, excellent quality and fresh ingredients, and fast to order, but able to eat in leisure, a concept he intends to franchise. here is the link to the article: http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/in-lyon-a-day-devoted-to-the-stomach/?hpw

GPS Emily got us to Starbucks in Lyon for a quick Frappucino which we had not had since Paris, then to the dock on the Quai, which turned out to be in an interesting spot where there are two public swimming pools, right on the Rhone river bank concrete embankment. Emily then took us through the streets of Lyon to a section called the Docs which is a burgeoning area for housing, commerce and now restaurants. OestExpress was modern, bright, clean, and inexpensive, averaging about 10e per person for a fast meal that was as described - excellent quality ingredients, served quickly, and allowing you to linger over your meal and relax. Mine included a drink, a very good roll, probably the best quiche I have ever eaten, a small salad, and a dessert for 10e. D. had a hamburger with fresh vegetables and cheese, on a fresh roll with a drink and dessert, while S. had pasta and a drink with a roll.

While we were glad to experience OestExpress, we are agreed that our Emily tour of Lyon satisfied us that we do not need to return. We viewed it as a better than expected business and university city, but not for us.

So, although I balanced our eating adventures with simpler meals at our house, with many salads, vegetables, and fruit, our stomachs are finished, as is our trip.

Tomorrow, we head to Paris for the end of our long but beautiful journey. We can begin to look forward to returning home and beginning to plan for next year.