My Solo Fling with a Mediterranean Playboy
It was a blustery August time in Marseille. The view overl king the Mediterranean had been dramatic.
I selected Restaurant Peron because it had been extensively featured in famed author Peter Mayle’s Caper series. The four publications went the gamut from classic wine theft and diamond that is unsolvable to the influx of Russians across the French Riviera, and an actual estate deal gone bad. Throughout, the protagonists ate and drank their method deliciously from Paris to Provence, because they relocated ever closer to cracking the full situation under consideration. I had read and reread the b ks many times through the frigid New England winter and promised myself I would go to France the following summer and walk within the f tsteps of Mayle’s figures.
On that extremely windy day at Peron, my playboy ended up being well known to your legions of Mayle fans. He penned about him often. The dinner started having a welcome glass of chilled Rosé from Domaine Tempier. The Provençal tomatoes and herbs that are fresh with olive oil paired perfectly. The expectation designed for the course that is main.
The daurade that is famed ended up being celebrated by f dies and by Mayle as “the playboy regarding the Mediterranean”. Yes, my playboy was a seaf d! An enjoyable course that is main in a salt crust and served having a delicious aioli. I had attended the restaurant alone, however with the written publications for company. They were an icebreaker that is great. The manager and diners that are nearby pictures, and I was peppered with concerns.
The fictional home of Francis Reboul, a key character in all four b ks in addition to the lunch at Marseille’s Peron, I marveled at Le Pharo. I also drove to wine nation in Cassis and visited its little port, as Mayle’s rogue sleuth, Sam Levitt, had done at the conclusion associated with Vintage Caper. Regrettably, it had been prematurily . for the Bouillabaisse he had so enjoyed.
In Monte Carlo, I had a lunch that is quick the Café de Paris where Levitt and Elena Morales plotted their next relocate the Corsican Caper. Later on, we viewed the yachts jockey for place in the harbor. We imagined Lord Wapping, the villainous Brit through the Marseille Caper, during the helm of the biggest of these, his aptly named “Floating Pound”
Before making France, we went to Paris’ Le Récamier which was showcased in Mayle’s very first Caper b k. In it, Levitt waxed poetically in regards to the joys of solamente dining. On that hot summer evening, my dining table for just one was set among the list of locals who had been enjoying their meals al fresco.
While dinner had been an unhurried pleasure, we conserved the most effective for last. Because of the Vintage Caper, I knew Le Récamier ended up being underst d for the soufflés, therefore I chose (Levitt’s and favorite that is presumably mayle’s the caramel soufflé and was overcome by an desire to kiss my fingertips in a tribute towards the c k, as Mayle’s characters had done many times in his publications. When I revealed the waiter the excerpts concerning the restaurant, he couldn’t read English, so I did my best to explain it in significantly halting French. He seemed bemused, but appreciative.
My homage My Transsexual Date towards the witty chronicler of all of the things France was certainly one of my solo vacations that are best and it’s not over yet. Once COVID is I are heading to Nice and Corsica behind us, my corkscrew and. The former to see where Levitt cracked the Diamond Caper, while the latter l king for the dive club owned by the fictional Figatelli brothers, the unsung heroes of the Corsican Caper. Until then, “bon appétit”.
Postscript Peter Mayle passed away in 2018. His many b ks romanticizing the French culture received him the Légion d’Honneur from the government that is french.