GITES
WITH POOLS
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www.gites-with-pools.co.uk 2007-9.
Restaurants in the Vendee
Deux
Saisons,
Damvix.
5, rue Garnauderie, Damvix.
Tel02 51 87 13 11
5, rue Garnauderie, Damvix.
Tel02 51 87 13 11
We were spending the day exploring a part of the Marais Poitevin
that I had not visited. We had thought that we would lunch at a restaurant on
the river Sevre Niortaise called the Auberge du Vieux Batelier, (The Old
Boatman’s Restaurant) and so we swung by early to check it out. It was a tad
expensive and we had tasked ourselves with searching out value for money, so
when Trevor said that it was frequented by coach parties, I lost my desire to
eat there. We decided that we would continue on our travels and find an
alternative.
Now when Trevor gets the call to eat it’s a must to find somewhere
fairly quickly, I think I’ll have to pack some biscuits to stave off his hunger
pangs. It was under these circumstances that we entered Damvix, a pretty little
village on one of the canals, there is a large restaurant barge which departs
from the quay there, but at 41 euros a head it wasn’t what we were looking for.
I said to Trevor that I would prefer to continue along the road from Damvix to
Arcais to find a little restaurant on the canal with a bit more charm, but
Trevor’s hunger won the day and we decided to eat at one of the restaurants in
Damvix. There were 2 restaurants on opposite corners, we decided on the Deux
Saisons solely because they advertised in a limited way the content of their 12
euro formula, whereas the other restaurant didn’t.
We sat at a table outside overlooking the road and the other
restaurant and the waitress came to take our order, she was delightful and very
pretty, somehow that’s always an encouraging start for me. Trevor had an alcohol
free beer and I drank the house wine that was included with the meal it was no
Grand Vin but it was as you would expect it was a no nonsense Vin de Table,
which was perfectly acceptable. The first course was what one could only
describe as a very original mixture comprising of a slice of ham pie, a slice of
salami, half a boiled egg with mayonnaise, macaroni lightly coated with a garlic
tomato and cheese sauce and vegetable couscous. Now you might think that this
would be an odd mix, and you’d be right it was odd but it was tasty and quite
contrary to my original thoughts in an odd way I enjoyed it. The main course was
cote de porc, essentially a pork chop, it was served with a vegetable risotto
and courgettes and mushrooms. This again was a very odd mix, the constituent
parts were well cooked and there were two pork chops when they could probably
have gotten away with one. The meal was finished with Oeufs au Lait, this is
milk, eggs and vanilla which have been cooked. When I first saw this on a
restaurant menu and enquired what it was the restaurateur told me it was Crème
Caramel without the caramel, when I went to pay the bill the restaurateur’s
husband and his group of farming mates kept repeating the words crème caramel
without caramel (in French of course) and laughing uncontrollably. All I can say
is that some people are easily amused.
By the time I had finished the meal in Damvix I was extremely
confused I couldn’t work out whether I was in France, Italy, Morocco or
Timbuktu. I like variety, but when I’m eating I need to have flavours that go
together and that I recognise alongside one another. This meal though well
enough cooked didn’t do that for me and even the very pretty waitress couldn’t
make up for it. With coffee the meal came to 26.50 euros for the two of us,
which is pretty good value for money, but I couldn’t rate this as one of the
better formula meals that I’ve eaten, and I can’t help thinking that had we
ventured a little further along the canal we might well have found a restaurant
with more charm and possibly a more cohesive menu, of course it might well have
cost more, who can say. Maybe next time we’ll go a little bit further and find
out. - Tate June 2009
