Vichy was a quick hop on the train from Clermont so it seemed a shame not to do the pop in while we were in the area. Off season Vichy wasn’t exactly buzzing but James had already identified Les Caudalies as the place to be for lunch and he was right.

The room is spacious and the welcome friendly. We had a table in the corner from where I could look at a collection of Michelin guides and James could survey the customers.

The set lunch had a couple of options plus l’ardoise. Now normally l’ardoise would be a couple of specials on a chalkboard. That’s not the way Le C rolls. Their chalkboard had a good dozen options for starter and main, making it difficult to choose.

In the end I went for a tzatziki inflected smoked trout. This turned out to be a big bowl of smoky fish on a slathery of garlicky fresh sauce. But not before we had an amuse bouche of crevetty soup with peppers and a G&T apéro. All of this with high quality bread.

James consulted the bible. If he’d have been Mrs Woof he’d have been drooling with anticipation at some high end, well priced wine. We could have had v good Bordeaux or Burgundy but opted for a local Auvergnat Chardonnay. This was a beefy number, well able to cope with my main of hare. Both innards and outards of hare in a thick, meaty sauce with plenty of mushroom.

We didn’t have room for dessert though I was sorely tempted to have some cheese. Coffee arrived with petits fours of meringue, pear jelly and Vichy sweets, so no need for dessert!

The meal of the weekend and a very reasonable 60 quid a head.

9/10

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