Tripadvisor – online travel companion of millions worldwide – has revealed its users’ favourite restaurants on the planet
Pandemic or not, we all need to eat and sitting in a restaurant with a nice meal in front of you has become one of the few havens of normality in a Covid-infected world.
The latest poll from American online travel advisor site Tripadvisor shows that French cuisine is still producing world-class quality, with the top two slots going to restaurants in the Hexagon while French representation in the top ten comes to three – more than any other country (the UK and Argentina have two each).
The three restaurants in question are in the regions of Occitanie (formerly Languedoc-Roussillon), Brittany and the Centre – Val de Loire. Top of the list is the 3-star Micheline restaurant Auberge du Vieux Puits in the tiny hamlet of Fontjoncouse in the Aude department. This is known as Cathar Country – a mesmerizing part of France filled with legends and ancient fortresses. The nearest large towns are Carcassonne and Beziers and Perpignan on the coast. The owner – Gilles Goujon – wanted to set up a restaurant and hotel with his partner Marie-Christine which would become a byword for comfort and wellbeing in the heart of a small village, far from the madding crowd.
The other two French restaurants that made the Tripadvisor’s world top ten are also in small charming locations rather than in city centres or heavyweight international hotel chains.
Second in the list and with a Michelin star rating, La Ville Blanche is located just off the D786 between Lannion and Paimpol, about 5km from Lannion in a village of under 2,000 souls called Rospez.
The other French entry that was deemed seventh best in the world was the La Maison d’à Côté, a two-star Michelin restaurant in the village of Montlivault on the banks of the Loire, midway between Tours and Orléans, 12km from Blois.