There’s something mildly dispiriting about eating in the “cheap” version of a high-end place. It’s probably a natural instinct to always want whatever’s perceived as better, which is what leads people to stupidities like blowing $1k on an iPhone app that says “I’m rich”, or spending 2,000 pounds on a pizza. Note to pizza diners: you are idiots. Note to pizzaiolo: good man.
That is, unless the “cheap” place is on a beautiful terrace on a beautiful day, while the main restaurant is indoors and has main dishes ranging in the hundreds of euros. Screw that.
We passed through Valence twice, on the way down from Paris to the South of France, and after cleverly leaving the coast several hours before the unwashed hordes decided to kick off their return. A good thing, too, as the last time we’d left after noon, we ended up spending about four hours in a traffic jam in the middle of godforsaken nowhereland, central France.
Better to have lunch at this excellent place, with great service, good wine, and only the occasional waiter with a mild case of Parkinson’s to inundate our neighbor with a generous load of Bordeaux. Poor woman — it would have been more just if he’d nailed her husband instead, he was nasty enough to make us believe he deserved it.
The menu’s changed since we were there, so not much sense in specifics, but everything was fresh, creatively prepared, and very, very good. Give it a try the next time you don’t feel like rolling North in the midst of several hundred tons of Parisian steel.
Le 7
285 Av. Victor Hugo
F-26000 Valence
+33 4 75 44 15 32
www.pic-valence.com