Picardie: Beauvais, Amiens and Le Crotoy

[John Talbott]

A funny thing happened on the way to France.

Colette read a piece in FRANCE magazine (the UK one) four days ago that featured this great hotel/restaurant, Les Tourelles, in le Crotoy on the estuary of the Somme (you're all too young to remember your grandfathers' stories, but the Battle of the Somme was awful), where we're going for two days next week with two other loyal eGullet members.

On our flight, we met Margaret Pilgrim, another loyal eGullet member, who is going to the brocante in Grand Villiers, around Amiens and we gotta eat - right.

So get to the OT point Dad.

Does anyone know of places in the Grand Villiers/Amiens/Le Crotoy/St Valery/St Fermin/Rue/Favieres/Abbeyville/etc. area to eat?

Thanks. John

[kerriar]

John,

Les Tourelles itself is a magic place, slightly out of time but with a strong sense of its own style. When we spent a few days there last summer with the kids, we ate very well in the hotel's own restaurant. It's main stream French bourgeois cooking drawing firmly on local ingredients - nothing at all wrong with that.

There's a fine terrace (with a damn good day-time menu) where you can simply sit with a glass of wine and a book and watch the amazing tides of the baie de Somme - if things get a bit windy, you'll find plenty of comfortable nooks and crannies to retreat to.

As for the other restaurants in the immediate area, I can't say much but you should be sure to buy a few bags of local sea spinach and salicornes from the salt marshes - perhaps even some of the local agneau de pré salé from the butcher in St Valery if you travel by car.

Further afield, Le Cheval Noir on the route national 925 at Petit-Miannay, just to the west of Abbeville, has proven to be a reliable lunch spot en route. It's run by a French/North African couple and is very popular with locals - even in summer usually we are the only "foreigners" there. Best therefore to book (03.22.24.20.17). It is good and unpretentious - the kind of place you hope to stumble across in rural France. I had always meant to give the place a recommendation on eGullet but probably felt it was a bit off the beaten path. Hope this is now useful to Margaret.

Edited June 28, 2007 by kerriar (log)

[Ptipois]

Café des Mouettes in Mers-les-Bains (right on the beach, North end) has outstanding fried whole plaice, boiled crab and other simple but good seafood dishes.

Edited June 28, 2007 by Ptipois (log)

[John Talbott]

Well, we were limited in time and only had three meals in the area. They were:

L’Orée de la Foret, 255, rue de la Foret, in Etouy (near Clermont, east of Beauvais) 03.44.51.65.18, closed Fridays and Saturday lunch and Sunday night, is a one star, three fork&spoons place that was splendid; located near/in a forest, in a great detached building, with a chef (Nicolas Leclerc) on the rise and a menu that didn’t miss a beat - it’s got to be the best meal of our foursome’s year. The three “menus” did not excite us, so we all ordered a la carte. The amuse gueule was a strip of marinated salmon with a dollop of Béarnaise-laden whipped cream topped with a tiny fennel frond and a tablespoon of shredded red carrots. Then, I started with sautéed foie gras, rhubarb and cilantro and my buddy had four giant langoustine tails served with two slices of perfectly cooked leek terrine, three helpings of compoted sun-dried tomatoes and minced cucumber and red pepper surrounded with a drizzle of vinaigrette and drops of concentrated balsamic; then our guests both had pigeonneau that was as delicate and tasty as possible, beautifully carved so it was easy and pleasurable to eat. The bird was served atop a bed of butter-wilted green cabbage, alongside two roasted beets, one red, one white – the white beet was sweet as sugar. Colette had a tournedo with a wine sauce, accompanied by layered chard custard and sliced roasted new potatoes. I had sweetbreads that were just wonderful. We eschewed dessert but all the other dining clients in the room had dessert and next time, I’ll leave room. It was all quite incredible and with wine and coffee was 237 € for four.

La Bonne Auberge, 63 Route Nationale in Dury (near Amiens), 03.22.95.03.33, was a good, but less than great, meal. The amuse bouche was/were a cup of watermelon soup with another creamy portion of Israeli couscous in fish sauce called ocean caviar. My friend and I split the firsts: once again, one was an order of sautéed foie gras with rhubarb and the other a wonderful combo of petoncles and langoustines with spicy chorizo chips. Then as mains I had sweetbreads (yes, again) with figs, Colette had scallops with an anchovy/caper sauce; our friends had (she) a salmon with mange touts and (he) lamb souris – all served with scraped carrots, broccoli and squash that were straight from the garden. Then, the one sour note; cold, pre-cut cheese. But partial redemption: a mi-cuit of chocolate and a chocolate pyramid that were not the best but OK. The bill 161.20 €, worthy of the Bib Gourmand it had earned.

Les Tourelles2/4 rue Pierre Guerlain in Le Crotoy, 03.22.27.16.33 was as kerrar described it,

…a magic place, slightly out of time but with a strong sense of its own style…

a very special place; after a day’s rain, the sun came out and we had one heckaofa spectacular view of the sunset over the Somme estuary. The food, unfortunately has slipped since kerrar was there; for example, the fish soup was pallid, indeed tasteless, the salad of crudities not what any of us, no matter how ignorant, would have purchased at any ordinary market, the Normandy oysters were pre-shucked and dry by the time of their service, the bulots had never been washed and sand interfered with enjoying them and the shrimp had not been de-veined and thus was oozing red intestinal something. There was a mixed vote on the mussels; one lady liking them, the other saying they were tasteless. My pal and I each had bar which was OK, but the red sauce was surely a mystery. In its favor, though, the butter was great and our serveuse terrific. However, at breakfast we really enjoyed the six-grain bread, fabulous croissants and jams, despite the miserable coffee. The cost was 171.00 € for four for the dinner and 9 € a person for breakfast, but I’ll never come back for the food, for sure.

Unfortunately the weather turned evil again the next morning with a fierce gale-force wind, so we didn’t have the chance to try Pti’s rec, the

Café des Mouettes in Mers-les-Bains

, but will next time we’re in the area.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

When we asked our hostess for dinner recommendations in the largely rural (grain fields) area of the Amiens-Beauvais-Neufchatel triangle, she sent us to Gerberoy, telling us it was the most beautiful village in France. It is, in fact, so picturesque that it approaches twee. There is a modest restaurant, a creperie and a tea salon, each with a terrace.

(Actually, we left the visiters and a terribly chic wedding party there and drove back into Grandvilliers and ate steak-frites in a quintessential village bar-restaurant packed with locals, apparently the place to be on a Saturday night!)

I do want to go back to Gerberoy with a planned-ahead picnic. I can't think of a lovelier setting.

And, kerrier, I will definitely hang on to your good address, Le Cheval Noir. Many thanks.

[kerriar]

Pity that Les Tourelles seems to have seriously lost its direction, as least as far as the kitchen is concerned.

It had been recommended by the people who run Auberge du Cedre, one of our long time favourite destinations for a break and also an established eGullet favourite in the Languedoc. Les Tourelles seemed to operate on a similar business model except, and this may be a big factor, the owners are not sur place but operate as a group of hands-off investors. Perhaps it is

One great benefit about eGullet however is that when negative feed back knocks somewhere off your list, there are always several other well-informed and reliable endorsements to fill up the gap. Margaret and John are always dependable here - now has anybody got a steer on a nice auberge in the flat lands between Paris and Brussels?