6.0 La Cape Rouge, 6, Quai Clemenceau in Bougival (78380), 01.39.69.18.98, closed Saturday lunch, Sunday dinner and Mondays is a place my good friend the French diplomat, now on R'n'R from one of the hottest hot-spots on the planet, chose that was near enough to his home and mine, to make a visit. It's not far from the other spot Colette and I have frequented, Le Camelia, en route to Giverny, ever since the wonderful Gérald van der Kemp allowed us to begin visiting the gardens just as they were about to be finished and flower. In any case, it's a small place that looks like your grandmother's living room, but has four chefs and one front-room guy, an impressive menu and a silky smooth mousse of Paris mushrooms.
I let my old buddy from the wine family (now you know who he is) choose a fine Red Chinon (natural, bio and all that) and he started with 3 types of foie gras and I had the sauteed foie gras atop Cointreau-infused poached or roasted apple and/or pear dices. We were certainl;y off to a great start.
Then he had the magret interspersed with figs, salad and pears and I four tempured scallops lovely presented with veggies that were a tad too over-salted for me. The chef and I later had a discussion about this.
Then we did what any self-respected Franco-American pals do, we ordered another bottle of wine, some cheese and a chocolate souffle with mango bits atop. Quite good all.
Our bill, well, I'm fudging here, but for normal folk, not just back from a war-zone, two three course "menus" with no bottled water but one bottle of wine and one coffee would be 110E. Oh, disclosure; my friend picked up the check in gratitude for past kindnesses on my part that he recalls but I don't.
Go? This is tough and will be put to the test when Colette and I head towards Giverny next year - here or Le Camelia? On verra!
