Village people

30 October 2010: After a fashionably late breakfast at Cafe Ladurée on the Avenue Champs Elysées (where else!) we were picked up my friend Erin, who bravely agreed to tackle the Paris traffic - with the help of TomTom - and take us to the village of Versailles for lunch and a natter.

Of course Versailles is best known for the fabulous Chateau de Versailles, home of French kings since 1682, when Louis XIV decamped from Paris, which he apparently loathed.

But we gave the palace a miss this time, heading instead to the village and its quaint cobbled market square, surrounded by the various market halls.

First, lunch in Au Chien Qui Fume (the dog who smokes)! The Coquilles St Jacques were fabulous, washed down with a glass of something rouge and french (apparently hard to find a bad wine in this country).

Then on to browse the market food halls.  All I can say is that the Belconnen and Fyshwick markets have got a way to go to catch up. Where else can you get your snails already pre-prepared with garlic butter to just pop quickly under the grill!!

And rather than pre-prepared chicken roasts, well here it's duck, cheval (yep, they eat horse meat!) veal, pork, turkey - and on to seafood, including such delicacies as sea urchins, and as many types of oyster as you can imagine.  Here's just a small selection of what was on offer!

So if it comes to a choice, I'm going to skip the palaces, and head for the villages while in France!