Fellow English hereabouts all have their favourite restaurants in the area - it always seems to us the main stipulation for them is that it's cheap - most of them are great if you want steak and chips followed crème brulèe. There are a few places that people recommend constantly but we have been consistently disappointed by the standard of the food - although admittedly they are cheap at 11/12 euros for a couple of courses.
Lunch at Moniques's at Bach though is never a disappointment. Its rather like going to lunch at a friend's house where there is a serious cook in the family! You can be sure of lovely food in a relaxed atmosphere. Lou Bourdié featured in a Jamie Oliver series some years ago and last year a French TV chef also filmed there. Its always busy, Monique does not have to worry about the tourist season being over - in fact she usually takes a holiday in August. If you want to eat there on a Sunday you need to book well in advance, the same goes for Tuesdays and Fridays in the winter when nearby villages of Lalbenque and Limogne hold their truffle markets. We have tried a couple of times to take visitors over the summer but its been fully booked. We have already reserved our table for the annual vin nouveau evening in November - its a highlight of our year - and Trevor gets to play his concertina for an appreciative audience.
We are always greeted like old friends too which is nice.Today for our main course we had rabbit in a saffron sauce which was really delicious and we treated ourselves to the local dessert Pastis afterwards ( its a layered filo style pastry with apple and armagnac). The "menu de jour" is four courses for 18 euros ( about £15) with a bit extra if you choose the pastis which makes it pretty good value in my book. Fellow diners today included a couple of EDF workers and some other workmen on their lunchbreak - you can tell we're in France - no tupperware box with cheese sandwiches for lunch here!
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