If your dogs are starting to bark, and if it's getting close to lunchtime, you might want to get a table at one of these places in Chinon. You can sit down and rest, have a coffee or a glass of wine, and watch the world go by. (I can't recommend any of these places out of personal experience. I'm just showing photos.)
According to the Cadogan guide, the house above, now a café restaurant called La Maison Rouge, was built in the year 1400. The restaurant gets pretty good ratings on TripAdvisor, and upstairs there's a vacation rental apartment for two to six people. The rental rates look reasonable. See the web site here, in French or in English.
For a light meal or a sweet treat, you can always look for a crêperie. I remember that we went into the one above one afternoon with friends who were visiting from California. They were hungry, but at an odd time by French standards — 3:00 p.m. The woman who greeted us said she could make us a dessert crêpe, but nothing else. I'm not sure Le Rabelais exists any more. I can't find it on TripAdvisor or on Google Maps.
The restaurant called Les Années Trente is still in business. I found it on Google Maps. On TripAdvisor, it's rated as one of the two best restaurants in Chinon. According to the restaurant's web site, it's open for lunch from 12:15 to 1:30, and for dinner from 7:30 to 9:00. It wouldn't have done us any good that afternoon when we were searching for a mid-afternoon snack. The restaurant seems to make food to go (à emporter) however.
The place above is where we ended up on that October afternoon. It's located a little ways east of the bridge that spans the Vienne river in Chinon. We were lucky they could accommodate us, because it was obvious the staff was still cleaning up the mess from a very busy lunch service. The Café de la Paix is a brasserie, and that kind of French restaurant usually stays open all day and into the night. It gets pretty good TripAdvisor reviews, but the look of the place has obviously changed completely since 2005.
We have eaten, probably more than once, at all of those places. The restaurant Les Années 30 is very good.
ReplyDeleteThe Café de la Paix does excellent burgers but last time we were there it was unaccaptably grubby, which is a shame. There are so many good places to eat in Chinon that we thought we'd try some of the others before going back there!
Have you had a meal at the place called La Part des Anges? It ranks 1st on TripAdvisor. Unfortunately, Chinon is out of our driving comfort zone, being at least 60 minutes from us or even 90 minutes, depending on which roads you choose to drive on. We'll probably go there again one day, though. There are some Chinon sights I've been reading about that I'd like to see one day, if possible.
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say I thought that we were to be given a dog friendly recommendation! It's been a while since I've heard of aching plates of meat!
ReplyDelete"My dogs are barking" appears to be a 100+-year-old expression meaning "my feet hurt" — I looked it up. Hence the name of the comfortable shoes called Hush Puppies.
ReplyDeleteHa! Ken, I was wondering, when you used that expression, if you meant your feet, or real dogs :)
ReplyDeleteI love that gîte! I've added it to my webpage for my French-4 unit on Loire Valley tourism :)
The first time I heard that expression about "dogs barking" meaning feet hurting, it was a fellow student on my 1970 study abroad program in Aix-en-Provence who used it. I can't remember his name but I do remember that he came from St. Louis. That Maison Rouge rental apartment in Chinon does look good, doesn't it?
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