My trip to Europe: Le Chaudron in Tournon, France

If you live in the New York and go to France, you might notice or I should say realize how spoiled we are there, places being opened daily and late at night if not 24/7. In France, it is not the case: supermarkets close at night; pharmacies are closed on the week end, except one per neighborhood for emergencies, and restaurants or boulangeries (bakeries) are closed once a week. If you are in Paris for instance, you will always find something opened, but in smaller cities, it might be a challenge. That is what we experienced when going to Tain L'Hermitage, a 6,000 souls city in the Drôme department, known for its wine and because Valrhona chocolatier has its Cité du Chocolat, a place where you can learn about chocolate and taste as many Valrhona chocolates as you want!

So, after walking around to try to find a place opened there for lunch, we went back to our car and drove to Tournon, the city close by. There, after desperately trying to find a place, we saw Le Chaudron, a French restaurant located located at the end of a cul-de-sac. 

Nice place, with a beautiful terrace that would have been perfect if we did not expect rain...that never came. 

The food there is elevated French or shall I say New French? Yes, they take classic ingredients such as foie gras or fish and create some interesting and mouth watering dishes. 

At the start of our meal, their brought us some caillette, a specialty from the area that is made with different parts of the porc. 

Then, I decided to go with the filets de rouget, a fish close to red snapper, but smaller and with a more pronounced taste. 

It was served with two tapenades, one made with black olives, the other with green, for some added saltiness.

The fish was perfectly cut and cooked.

Nice presentation and a great way to start a meal.

Then, I got the millefeuille of salmon with a curry sauce, served with ravioles (sort of small ravioli, a traditional dish there). 

The salmon was perfectly cooked, moist and deliciously flakey, with tuiles made with sesame seeds that gave a nice nuttiness to the dish.

The sauce was sublime, the curry being there for the color rather than the taste. 

Jodi ordered a cheese plate:

It had:

Fourme d'Ambert:

Picodon:

Coulomier:

Saint Felicien:

With it, she ordered a small salad that was a bit pricey (10 Euros). 

For dessert, we tried:

The pomme au four (oven baked apple) with salted caramel:

The crème brûlée:

The mi-cuit au chocolat:

The dessert were very disappointing: the crème brûlée had a weird taste and the mi-cuit cake was overcooked. Only the oven baked apple was good. 

With our coffee, they also gave us some small pieces of chocolate cake, a nice touch to finish a meal that would have been memorable if the dessert would have been at the same level as the rest of the food. Despite this, I really liked our meal at Le Chaudron: creative and delicious. 

Le Chaudron
7 Rue Saint-Antoine
07300 Tournon-sur-Rhône, France

Enjoy (I did)!

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And Remember: I Just Want To Eat!