Bar de la Placette

It's already a quarter past two in the afternoon and we stil haven't had lunch. We were planning to eat somewhere, but that place did not open at the time we expected it to, so now we are roaming the village of Bessèges in France, looking for a meal. It's hot - yesterday, the temperature rose to 38 degrees Celsius, and today is not much cooler - but we're bicycling and that actually comes with a bit of a cooling breeze.

We're here for two weeks, visiting my dad and his wife. Rihanna Gaga and I were here last year as well, and my girlfriend and I have been here several times because my family has always had a house here since 1992. And before that, we camped here. All in all, I've been coming to this place since I was eleven years old.  This time, we're staying in a house that my dad and his wife recently bought and that they are planning to renovate over the coming years. Our days are spend lazily - Bessèges is really provincial and there isn't much else to do than going to the river and sit on your balcony and enjoy the olives, French cheese and other food delights that a holiday in France has to offer. Rihanna Gaga is enjoying her time with my father and his wife, as well as the added bonus of a lovely dog and a grumpy cat that are pure entertainment for her. As is their garden, a beautiful terraced affair, that is even made better by the fact that sometimes she can help out with the gardening, something she loves: she's fascinated by flowers, trees, stones and wood and there are lots of things to pick up and admire. Less pleasant are the huge number of musquitos that are preying on us day and night, Her legs are covered in bites. She also kind of misses other children to play with.

Our search for food brings us to Bar de la Placette, a shaded little restaurant in the corner of one of Bessèges's main squares, in front of the only supermarket in town. Its salads seem a good deal: for €14,50, you can pick a salad that is then served with bread, French fries and dessert. We take a seafood salad and a tuna salad. Quiet waiters take our orders: slightly gruffy-looking men that do not talk or smile much, but have a decidedly friendly air to them. Most customers have already eaten - lunch seems to be mostly served between 12:00 and 15:00 here and although there are a few other patrons when we arrive, by the time our food is served, the family who runs the restaurants are the only other people eating.

The salads turn out to be huge and tasty - albeit a little bit too greasy. The French fries are delicious, as is the desert: frozen nougat with whipped cream and caramel sauce. Vaporised water is sprayed every once in a while from a system of tubes over the terrace, something that fascinates Rihanna Gaga. All in all, Bar the la Placette has much going for it, with the only real drawback being the amount of smoking going on - even though the terrace is in the open air, it's a bit too much and not very nice when you're eating.