A further look around Evian and lunch in Publier

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 27th September 2023

The clouds seem to be gathering a bit more each morning, but miraculously burn off providing us with continued wonderful weather. We have a light program today with a wander around town this morning until we drive to Publier for lunch.

As usual breakfast is on our mind and after catching the funicular down to town, we notice there is a bit more activity in the town, similar to yesterday. We soon found a cafe to have a coffee and croissant, although the owner had to run down the road to a patisserie to get some croissants as she didn't have any but didn't want to lose our business. 

The girls then had a bit of shopping time whilst John and I went exploring looking for a fish shop as we have been eating quite a bit of a very nice local lake fish they call Fera, but have no idea what it looks like.

We ended up finding nice little shop with an owner who was keen to explain everything in his shop to us and his English was not bad.


Fera

Much better armed to order local seafood now, we discover that Perch here is a tiny little fish that they fillet into small fillets and fry in butter. Mussels are really small and he was well aware of our green lipped mussels but said they were far to expensive for him. A big surprise were the king prawns which came from Madagascar. He offered both John and I a prawn each to taste and they were very sweet but at 49 Euro a kilo we were not tempted to buy any. We were there for about 15 minutes and he was very keen to discuss his produce.

With another big lunch planned for today, a light dinner back at the hotel is planned. This time we stopped at a local boulangerie and purchased some individual quiches and something to have with coffee afterwards. We still have plenty of olives and other accompaniments back in our rooms.

The morning went quickly and we were soon heading back up the hill in a very full funicular trip. After putting our dinner in the fridge, we were in the car heading for Publier.


We parked right out the front of the restaurant on the other side of the road facing the lake


Once again, there is no wind and a lone white swan and a fisherman are enjoying the calm conditions

At 12.30 pm we are among the first arrivals at the restaurant and are greeted with great enthusiasm by the hostess, who is a real character and an excellent salesperson. Before we know it we are enjoying the house aperitif, a white wine base with some fruit in it that seems to have been soaked in some liquor.


She went on to describe the specials of the day which were both very comprehensive and all sounded great.


The mushroom quiche I had as an entree was excellent

We all had fish for our main course with three of us having steamed Arctic Char and John had whole sea bass. All were cooked very well and of course the sauce went perfectly. Accompaniments were mashed potato with truffle oil, chips and a very savoury risotto. These were all chosen by the hostess and were not negotiable. It was a good choice, especially the rice.

Naturally the finale was dessert, from which I abstained. The house special was Rum baba with some extra rum on the side that you could liberally pour over the cake to absorb more rum to your taste. It was a lot bigger than any of us suspected, but John and Carole managed to do it justice. The flan was a prune base.



All of this went down very well with a rose from Provence, and a cup of coffee to finish. We waddled out of the cafe with much lighter wallets and across the road to our car, having enjoyed a great dining experience.

A brief walk along the shoreline before we got back in the car helped settle our stomachs for our trip home, via Carrefour, which is becoming a bit of a ritual.

A few shots from the shoreline in front of the restaurant are below. The scenery here is simply stunning.





Carrefour was calling and we dropped in to get mainly wine and tomatoes to have with dinner.

Back at the hotel for our few hours rest before dinner, I went for a walk down to have a look at another hotel just down the road that also seems to have a great vista, L'ermitage Hotel.



The driftwood sculptor has been here too

It looks nice but is very big and I don't think it would have the "homely" feel La Verniaz has. Back at our hotel, the courtyard has been set up for dinner service.




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