Bayeux: L’Assiette Normand (August 2017)

L’Assiette Normande - Good Food, Great Value

My spouse and I dined at L’Assiette Normande for dinner on a Thursday evening in early September 2017. The restaurant is open daily during the summer months from 12:00 noon until 3:00 pm for lunch, and from 7:00 pm until 11:00 pm for dinner. In the winter months, the restaurant is closed on Sundays and Mondays. Reservations are recommended. We stayed nearby at the Villa Lara, and it was less than a 7-minute walk to the restaurant.

L’Assiette Normande, whose name translates to "The Norman Plate", is located across from the Bayeux Cathedral; a few lucky tables offer glimpses of the landmark. The restaurant offers several places to dine: the rustic, timber-walled main dining room, the adjacent bar room, a small side dining room (which was the only space available to us because we arrived without a reservation), a small courtyard deck with one table for outdoor dining, and an upper mezzanine to accommodate larger parties.

The restaurant serves delicious rustic French cuisine in large portions at reasonable prices. The printed menu is listed in both French and English, although the menu on their website shows French only. Several menus are offered, including daily specials on chalkboard, a la carte, and prix-fixe duos (two courses) and trios (three courses). We ordered the delicious “menu de cochon” (literally “menu of pig”, including three courses of pate, a sort of pork shepherd's pie, and a baked apple dessert) and one “menu duo” (with salmon pate followed by chicken and fries). For our food, along with two rounds of drinks (beers and sodas), our bill totaled only 55 Euros, one of the least expensive, but also one of our favorite, meals of our entire trip.

We loved our dinner at L’Assiette Normande – the service was good, the food was yummy (especially the menu de cochon!), and the atmosphere was comfortable and casual.

Bayeux: Le Conquerant/Coady-Fortier (August 2017)

Le Conquerant – Stop in for a Pint After You See the Tapestry

My spouse and I stopped at Le Conquerant for drinks and a snack on a Thursday afternoon in early September 2017. The pub is open Wednesdays through Mondays from lunchtime until late night (closed on Tuesdays).

Le Conquerant opened in 2011 in historic Bayeux near the Tapestry Museum. Its corner location is emphasized by its awning and red exterior walls. Inside in the bar area, you can sit at the bar itself, or at high-top tables nearby. In an adjacent dining area, you can sit at regular-height tables, or you can dine outside on the sidewalk in appropriate weather. The interior décor includes exposed stone walls and wood beams. In the restroom, a clever sign near the communal sink (for men, something about “stand closer, it’s shorter than you think” and for ladies, “please remain seated for the entire performance”) made us chuckle.

This Irish-French bar (where English is spoken) offers a small menu of pub food (including fries, grilled cheese/meat [toasties], burgers, fish and chips, omelets, and crepes), with daily food and drink specials written on a chalkboard. Our two rounds of drinks (beers and Hysteric cider) and one order of fries totaled about 20 Euros. 

We enjoyed our happy hour at Le Conquerant.

La Cambe German Cemetery (August 2017)

La Cambe German war cemetery is one of six main German cemeteries in Normandy. It contains more than 21,000 graves; almost half of the dead interred here were relocated from over 1,400 other locations in isolated field graves or small battlefield cemeteries throughout Calvados and the Orne. At the center of the cemetery is a large 50-foot high burial mound (called a “tumulus”) topped by a large dark cross and flanked by two statues that marks the mass grave of 207 unknown and 89 identified German soldiers. Nearly 50 rectangular grave fields (each containing up to 400 graves with flat grave markers) surround the mound. The soldiers range in age from 16 to 72 and all died during the Allied landings between June 6 and August 20, 1944. La Cambe contains an information center where relatives can use a database to look up grave locations for family members. A peace garden with 1,200 maple trees lines the access road. 

Bayeux: La Fringale (August 2017)

La Fringale - Popular Restaurant for Locals and Travelers

My spouse and I dined at La Fringale on a Wednesday evening in late August 2017. The restaurant is open Mondays through Saturdays; however, it closes on Wednesdays in the winter months. We stayed nearby at the Villa Lara, and it was less than a 5-minute walk to the restaurant.

La Fringale, whose name translates to “The Munchies”, offers both indoor and outdoor seating. Outdoors, you can dine on the awning-covered sidewalk terrace, adjacent to the street, which is pedestrian-only during the summer months. The smallish indoor space requires visitors to take a few steps down from street elevation. The cozy interior features a sort of country hodgepodge decor that creates a homey feel. This restaurant is one of the more family-friendly (and dog-friendly) establishments that we visited, even setting aside a corner by the front window for a children’s play area.

La Fringale offers rustic French cuisine, as well as a selection of gourmet pizzas. We began with the tatin andouille (apple and chorizo tart) and the soup de poisson (Normandy fish soup). As our main courses, we ordered the marmite de poisson (curried fish with rice), and the beef bourguignon. For our food and three rounds of drinks (beer and sodas), our bill totaled 85 Euros.

We enjoyed our dinner at La Fringale: good food and service in a casual atmosphere.

Mont-St-Michel: La Mere Poulard (August 2017)

La Mere Poulard - Even If You Can’t Dine, Be Sure to Stop to See the Omelet-Making

My spouse and I dined at La Mere Poulard for lunch on a Wednesday afternoon in late August 2017. Our French-speaking guide telephoned the restaurant on the day prior to our visit in order to reserve a table, but she was told that the restaurant does not accept reservations. Although we did not have a booking, we waited only a short time for a table; however, we initially requested a table for three people so that we could eat with our guide, but the restaurant was only able to offer us a table for two people. (Actually, our smaller group was preferable to us, because the cost to dine at La Mere Poulard for lunch costs nearly 50 Euros per person, which we felt was a bit extravagant to spend not only on ourselves, but also for our guide.)

La Mere Poulard is a restaurant and hotel located on Mont Saint-Michel. (Its current owners also operate other hotels and restaurants on the Mont [including Relais Saint-Michel, Le Saint-Aubert, Le Mouton Blanc, La Digue, Les Terrasses, and La Confiance], some take-out cafes, several gift shops, and a few museums.) The restaurant first opened in 1879 (although back then it was called Hostellerie de la Tete d'Or), and it has hosted many diners since that time. (Famous visitor photos and autographs cover the walls, including writers Ernest Hemingway and Arthur Miller, Marilyn Monroe, fashion designers Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Dior, King Edward VII, Winston Churchill, and Margaret Thatcher.) The first owner, Annette Poulard/Boutiaut, was nicknamed “Mother” (or “La Mere”, in French, hence the restaurant name), and is knows as an ambassador of French gastronomy.

La Mere Poulard serves French cuisine, but its specialty is its unique giant fluffy omelets, which are several inches thick, mixed in hand-hammered copper bowls, and cooked over an open wood fire. The omelets resemble a frothy soufflé more than a traditional omelet. We both ordered the three-course prix-fixe lunch for 38 Euros per person; even though we did not need three courses, the price for just the omelet was the same 39 Euros, so the fixed menu was a better value. As our starters, we chose the vegetable soup and the pate, followed by two omelets, one with camembert and the other with bacon, each accompanied by fried potatoes. As our desserts, we ordered the tarte tatin and the crème caramel. Our lunch bill totaled 100 Euros, including food and two rounds of drinks (beer and soda).

We enjoyed our lunch at La Mere Poulard – its distinct omelets are something we will never forget!