We went to Lesdiguieres on the recommendation of a friend who had been there back in the 70's and…read moreremembered it fondly. It's a slightly funky place; Old school, a bit... not tatty exactly, but dated at least, in some places. Our room was large and had beautiful French windows opening onto a tiny balconette. The bathroom was very contemporary. It was simply, but nicely done, and immaculate. We changed and went down for our dinner reservation right away since we had arrived late.
This is a teaching facility for the hospitality industry, and the staff in all areas of the business are in some stage of their training. There is teaching staff supervising and guiding throughout the meal. We were seated in the front room of the restaurant near the windows facing the grounds. If we had arrived earlier we could have had drinks at the beautifully paneled bar behind the dining room. We opted for the Menu Degustation of seven courses. They figured out that Himself has only limited French; it's been almost 40 years since he lived in France and rusty doesn't even begin to describe it... They made a huge effort to provide English descriptions of the courses, and we could tell there was a fair bit of googling going on behind the scenes. Clearly they are mostly frequented by locals, not tourists. We had a really enjoyable meal, everything was good and some things were elevated in to really delicious. The plating was simple and attractive, typical flourishes and dots of sauce and puree and foam. The service was attentive and, with one exception, pretty polished. One unfortunate young lady was just a bit of a disaster. Her hair was scraggly, her uniform rumpled, her scarf hanging and dragging near plates and looked as if it sometimes had hit. Every time she opened the silverware drawer near us there was a huge clatter and then again when she closed it with an overabundance of enthusiasm. She dropped things and seemed unable to keep her hands away from her face. We guessed she was very new to the program perhaps! The wine list was modest, but sufficient, and the teacher on duty stepped in and assisted with the wine. The young man who was our main server was lacking knowledge of the wines from personal experience. Because this is not, as I had assumed, a college. It is a high school. And these chefs, concierges, and waiters and all were high school students. The level that they perform at is very impressive.
In the morning we requested our breakfast in the room. It was a bit peculiar, and not in keeping with the dinner we had the night before. The small boxes of cold cereal, American style (Frosted Flakes and Coco Pebbles maybe?) next to the lovely fresh little baguettes and viennoiserie cracked us up. There were little jam and honey jars, and dried fruit and yoghurt. The coffee and cocoa were excellent and it was very generous tray, if a little strange. We were dubious when it arrived but pretty happy by the time we finished.
The rates are so below market rate it seemed to us to be a very nice detour on the way to Lyon.
The town was pretty, with an interesting old quarter, and we spent the better part of the next day hiking all over the Bastille, which has one of the most insane looking parkours I have ever seen!
Good food well priced and off the beaten track!
