Café de la Fontaine is the kind of bustling bistro that many believe has become all too rare in France these days. It is friendly and good value in what is otherwise an extremely expensive part of the country; but, as in many other places that are so obviously popular with the locals, the service can be somewhat slapdash.
From the moment I finally caught our waiter’s eye, however, delivery was very prompt. On the blackboard were five starters, of which the best was a creamy leek tart, served in vast slices, with a tomato and well-dressed green salad and an equally generous bowl of ravioli topped with broccoli. They arrived even before we had time to taste the equally fresh bottle of Triennes 2008 rosé (€26).
No sooner had these been cleared away than a waitress was back with our main course. A hefty entrecôte with frites and sauce béarnaise; two generous plates of lamb with provençal vegetables; a slightly inept seafood risotto (more like seafood rice pudding); and several very well-cooked pieces of rabbit with olives, carrots and polenta. The high proportion of meat on the menu may be due to the fact that the butcher, Chez Lino, is just next door.
Over lunch we were entertained by the bustle of locals, the elderly women sporting fur coats on this sunny spring afternoon while the younger men sat outside to keep an eye on their bikes.
Our waiter returned in a schoolmasterly frame of mind. When one of our party couldn’t decide between the tiramisu and the savarin with pineapple and rum for dessert, he said: “There are two portions of lemon tart left that are not on the blackboard. That’s the best thing to have.” And he was right.
Three courses with the bottle of wine, one beer but no coffee came to a very reasonable (for these parts) €166 for five. But before we embarked on the 20-minute drive back to Nice airport there was just time to take in two of La Turbie’s much older attractions. The first was the view of Monte Carlo, the Mediterranean and the coast along to Italy from atop a promontory. The second was looking at the remains of the Trophy of Augustus, built by the Romans more than 2,000 years ago, and wonderìng what they ate here as they first walked through this beautiful corner of France.
Café de la Fontaine, 4 avenue du Général de Gaulle, 06320 La Turbie.
Tel: +33 49328 5279.
Open every day
