Les Délices du Roy

i am currently spending the weekend in southern France. it's great. the weather's amazing, as is the countryside. it's gorgeous all round.

yesterday, we went to the above-named restaurant, in a small town called Nérac, in the next 'county'. that was slow food. it took a good half an hour before we were even able to order, and it's not like there were many tables (there are 9 tables total in the restaurant, and considering the whole meal takes a good 2.5 hrs, we really wonder how they ever make any money). once we'd ordered our starter and main course, which was to be everything we wanted to eat, we were first served with what they call 'mises-en-bouche', i.e., something to make us ready to eat and make us want more. that was prawns. then we had our starter. a huge amount of it. it would have done me as a full meal! this was followed by a little something to, i assume, prepare our palates to the different taste of the main course: a scoop of blackcurrant ice cream topped with one perfect, tasty and mostly light orange-coloured raspberry. followed our meal. again, massive quantities. once that was over and we were thoroughly full, we saw what other people were being served for dessert. more gorgeous stuff, but we weren't having any, and that was just as well. which didn't stop the waiter from bringing more food to our table, namely a small glass of panacotta topped with raspberry sauce. delicious!

the whole thing took a really long time, as i said. and it was amazing all the way through. but there should be a warning sign that tells customers that they'll be getting 3 in-between dishes. even though they were tiny, we could have lived with just a main course if we'd known we were getting all those other things...