Le Bar du Musee is a family restaurant as well as a bar and cafe. It is run by Maria and her…read moremother, and the extraordinary quality of this restaurant is that when you come here, it's not like going to a restaurant, it's like having a home-cooked meal at your favorite aunt's--food cooked with love and attention. Beyond the conviviality of the hostesses and regulars, is the fact that almost everything you eat or drink at le Musee is actually grown in the local gardens of Maria and made by them personally. We arrived as strangers, thinking just to pop in for a cup of coffee, and through some wonderful alchemy, within about five minutes we became friends and family with the hosts and other guests. Now, granted this kind of warmth is also part of the culture of Southern France, of Provence, or Le Midi, as it is called. The people are, as a rule, more open, friendlier and more talkative than the people north of the Loire, but still, these people are super-friendly even for southern French standards. The restaurant is small, I'd say twelve tables or so, with the bar counter on the left as one enters. I guess one can order a la carte, or from a menu, but basically the way it works is that Maria and her Mum each day just cook a selection of dishes, and then the guests choose which, or all, the dishes they wish to eat. The day we came, we started with big platters of charcuterie or cold cuts, including a wonderful pate, (photo) home-made, with 3 different sorts of meats, and the usual assortment of saucisson and jambon. There were also hot croissants filled with ham and cheese. A really great salade provencale with some exceptional tomatoes, all home grown, all VERY fresh. Unless you've had a garden yourself and have been able to pick vegetables when they reach their PEAK of ripeness, and then serve them IMMEDIATELY, then you have no idea how much better, how much tastier a fresh garden salad is, compared to one made in a restaurant or made at home with commercially grown produce...it's like comparing a limp handshake to a well-executed French kiss (I was going to use another, more graphic metaphor, but I toned it down for family audiences). Now, there is a problem at le Musee: pacing yourself; remember I said that Maria and her Mum are like your favorite aunts, so they are going to push this food on you (and they push it NOT to boost the bill--since you can ask for seconds and it doesn't matter--, but because like your aunt, they love to see people eat a LOT). But if you indulge yourself too much, and give in to their admonitions for you to eat more and more, and you go ape, you won't be able to eat your way to the main courses. Understand that as you eat, like your favorite aunt, they will know what you eat, and what you don't, and if you don't eat with appetite, they will be concerned, just like your aunt ('are you OK? what's wrong, why aren't you eating?'--after your 3rd helping, mind you). So I preferred to sample just a bit of all the dishes. Dishes served included spinach with cheese, lentils with poitrine fumee (a cut of pork somewhat similar to bacon), entrecote de veau (also locally produced), tongue with sweet green peppers, baby potatoes cooked with cheese, poireaux in a cheese sauce, and several other dishes I can't recall. Vin de table, red or rosee, is served in pitchers. Different cakes and tartes, home-made, as well as ice cream, and coffee, naturally, are served for dessert. Apperitifs--a delicious rose flower liqueur (also home-made) being the most memorable were included, as was a choice of digestifs liqueurs of various potencies. There were quite a few freeby drinks as well. The price was less than 20 euros for this.
