V A is a long standing and recognised digital creative; her voice resonates with many. In the last ten years, the site has developed into an online destination for fashion, beauty and lifestyle advice. Her sense of style, editorial flair and practical counsel offers an inspired and graceful approach to living.

V A is a long standing and recognised digital creative; her voice resonates with many. In the last ten years, the site has developed into an online destination for fashion, beauty and lifestyle advice. Her sense of style, editorial flair and practical counsel offers an inspired and graceful approach to living.

Edit by: Vicki
Aug 14, 2009

Love To Lunch At Le Lunch

 

I have not yet met a French person who doesn’t stop for a proper lunch.
By proper lunch I mean table, chairs, cutlery, china and food on the plate kind-of-lunch not the take-away sandwich fast food kind of lunch that I munched on in my past life.
I know that, ‘breakfast is the most important meal of the day’ and that this wise platitude is based on sound medical reasoning but if we are talking in terms of eating pleasure, I vote for lunch every time.

How far would you drive for a good lunch?

I think the answer is that distance becomes irrelevant when there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Our rainbow yesterday were the calanques of Marseille – the limestone cliffs that push out into the Mediterranean Sea – and our pot of gold was a restaurant aptly entitled, Le Lunch.

Le Lunch sits by the sea at the base of the Calanque de Sormiou outside the port city of Marseille.

The restaurant is at the end of a long and very narrow road that winds up and over the calanque.
At the same time as reserving a table at Le Lunch you must leave the details of your car registration which then enables access to this private road.
The drive through these limestone cliffs is spectacular and that first glimpse of blue makes the 90 minute journey from home worthwhile.

Le Lunch is very simple and low key in decor with the same approach to the cuisine; Le Lunch is all about the location.

I opted for the grilled fish of which there was a choice of sea-bream, sea bass and red mullet.

It was presented whole, then de-boned at the table and served with a whisper of olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt – light, delicious and perfect.

Driving back up and out is just as dramatic as arriving – the views of the city of Marseille are framed by the natural wilderness of the limestone calanques on either side.

Marseille is not St Tropez and Le Lunch is not Cub 55 but that is the beauty and the charm. Le lunch was le fab, xv.

 

Le Lunch

Calanque de Sormiou

13009 Marseille

+33 4 91 25 15 37

Edit by: Vicki
In This Post: Provence