Hôtel de la Plage

I only stayed there in 1969, when I was a 10-year-old boy, so this isn't really a review. I'm just having a whimsical moment. It was my first time outside the UK. The mother owned the hotel and the grandmother did the cooking. There was a bathroom on each floor 🤪, and you had to ask for la clef de la Sal de Bain. The food opened my eyes to gastronomy and gave me a lifetime of pleasure and appreciation. We had homemade soup, then a huge sharing bowl of monster crevetttes or langoustine, just steamed with a squeeze of lemon, or maybe a sole bonne femme. Then veal with simple vegetables, followed by cheese and fruit or perhaps dessert. I'd walk down to the dock and see wooden boats loaded with giant tuna that looked like monsters from the deep to a 10-year-old. The fishermen had a Gaulloise clamped between their teeth. I can still remember the smells of fish, brandy, coffee, gitanes, fresh bread, two-stroke scooters, 2CV’s, and corrugated panel vans. A magical moment in life, from a time long gone, though it feels like only a blink ago. Sante 🥂et Merci