Sunday, November 9, 2014

Family lunch in Peillon

My brother Janne and Katja certainly could've chosen a better week on which to visit the Cote d'Azur. The past few days had been positively miserable weather-wise (rather unusual for the Cote d'Azur - especially considering what a fantastic Autumn we've had so far!), and the forecast wasn't promising for the next days either...




But, they arrived this weekend, so clearly we had to do something on Sunday, in spite of the rather heavy rain. So, clearly the best option was a nice family lunch (any excuse to check out another good restaurant eh?). As we wanted to include a bit of tourism into the package, we eventually decided upon a well-rated little eatery called "Les Plaisirs", located in one of our favorite villages on the Cote d'Azur, Peillon.

Peillon is a real medieval gem, a tiny village perched on a seemingly unassailable hilltop, located just a few kilometres from Nice, amazingly off the tourist trek. The absence of touristy trinket shops (yet another reason to like the place!) that overwhelm some of the more touristy places like Eze probably contributes to this lack of tourists.

Anyway, the village was just as pretty as we remembered from our last visit, and the views just as great, in spite of the insistent rain (which kept the touristy part of our visit rather short...). And the restaurant ? What an amazing place - really nice to still find places like this.

The place is operated by a young, enthusiastic and friendly chef, who's clearly passionate about what he does. Everything on the menu is made of locally sourced, mostly organic, ingredients, amazing given the reasonable prices. Since the young chef also does most of the waiting (helped by an equally friendly lady), one can forgive a somewhat slow service. Not much on the menu - a couple of starters, a couple of main courses and a couple of deserts - but I'm more and more of the opinion that fewer dishes on the menu is a good sign. So to summarize, one of the nicest restaurants we've been to on the Cote d'Azur.

After lunch, since the weather unfortunately decided to stay miserable, we headed back to Cagnes to hang out for a bit. We kicked off with a coffee and cake session (a Finnish tradition I cherish!), during which we watched photos from our recent trip to Japan. After the photo session, dad decided to head off home, whereas us "youngsters" decided to spend the rest of the afternoon (and evening, as it turned out) playing board games whilst enjoying a delicious Japanese chestnut rice dish prepared by Mathilde.

A very nice family kind of Sunday then, in spite of the insistent rain.

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