Five Great Restaurants: Uzès

Table de Julien Place de la Mairie 30700 Saint Maximin Just five minutes outside of Uzès and well worth the drive. This restaurant is owned by a young, local couple whose fabulous food and excellent service, make for my favorite restaurant. The menu, which often includes foie gras, is limited, but changes regularly and is never disappointing. Ideal for special occassions. Reservations are recommended, especially during the high season. Indoor and outdoor seating.

Les Terroirs 5, place aux Herbes 30700 Uzès www.enviedeterroirs.com If you have ever been to Uzès in the summer, you know that it is a mad house. This restaurant has the perfect spot for outdoor seating on the Place aux Herbes and it's often hard to get a table. When you do get a seat, you will enjoy fresh salads, tartines, and tapas. A great wine selection is offered on the menu or in the gourmet shop inside the restaurant. Outdoor seating only.

Du Chai d'Uzès 54, Boulevard Gambetta passage Marchand 30700 Uzès Best place for wine, small dishes and great conversation! This small, lively wine bar, owned by Thierry and Valérie, has an extensive choice of wines by the glass or you can choose a bottle from the wine shop and pay a 7€ corkage fee. The wine shop is connected to the bar and wines are sold at the prix des caves. Small dishes include charcuterie platters, local cheese, stuffed grape leaves and pâtés. Indoor and outdoor seating.

Le P'tit Coffee 24, Place aux Herbes 30700 Uzès Tucked away off the beaten path of the main boulevard, this restaurant is the perfect place for a light lunch and a view of the Place aux Herbes. Menu includes a salad niçoise topped with pan seared tuna, local goat cheese served with perfectly ripe figs and tartare-frites. There is a nice beer and wine selection. Outdoor seating only.

Millézime 6, Boulevard Gambetta 30700 Uzès www.restaurant-millezime.fr A young Parisian couple has found the right formula to keep customers coming back to this restaurant. A large menu selection of provençal style cuisine combined with a laid back atmosphere, open 6 days a week. This restaurant is perfect for an outing with friends or an impromtu dinner. Always busy, fun and it won't break your bank. Indoor and outdoor seating.

Best Kept Secret...

Walking through the stone village of St Maximin, we wondered if we were at the right place. A Sunday noon, the middle of winter and a rainy day, which is rare in the Gard region, there was not a soul in sight. The sign above the restaurant read Café de le Mairie, but we had reserved at La Table de Julien? As we walked in to the café, we were directed down a flight of stairs to a vaulted, candle lit dining room. Welcome to La Table de Julien!
Jennifer Henriksen, co-owner and wife of Chef Julien Lavandet, greeted us with a smiling, down to earth attitude that immediately put us at ease. The small, elegant dining room was filled with people from England, Belgium and France, all there for the same reason...the incredible food. This was our first time dining there, since we were never able to get a reservation last minute, and now we know why. The food was out of this world! Scallop carpaccio seasoned with lime and peppercorns, pan seared fois gras with a caramelized pear, homemade brioche spread with wild mushrooms topped with a perfectly poached egg, juicy beef tenderloin with a rich cocoa sauce, vegetable stuffed rouget topped with langoustine froth (pictured), and delicious desserts. A perfectly balanced Gigondas to sip throughout the meal and we were in heaven!
We reserved at this tucked away restaurant not knowing what to expect and left knowing we now have a new favorite restaurant. La Table de Julien is by far St. Maximin's best kept secret!

La Table de Julien
30700 St Maximin
Tél: 04.66.22.93.24

Melt Your Heart Away Fondue

Snow, snow, snow! It hadn't stopped in 24 hours and we were ready for something warm in our stomach. Everyone was talking about the Auberge la Fruitière des Perrières, a restaurant specialized in cheese, but they were booked for the next month! Luckily, a friend was able to get us a late evening reservation. Walking into the wooden chalet, you could smell the sweet cheese and smokey meats. We were starving! They sat us next to the stone fireplace and served us the house apèritif. The menu consisted of different cheese dishes, which is traditional in the French Alps. You can choose from:
Raclette- a large wedge of cheese is put near a fire and is brought to melting point. When the cheese is soft and about to melt, a layer is scraped of and eaten with potatoes, charcuterie & cornichons
Tartiflette- a gratin of potatoes, lardons & reblechon cheese
Fondue- mixed with local cêpes mushrooms & white wine, served with bread, charcuterie & cornichons
The best part of the menu is that they make all the cheese at their farm! We chose the Fondue aux Cêpes. The fondue arrived along with an abundant amount of charcuterie and bread, spread on wooden boards and old baskets. But my favorite condiment to eat with fondue is cornichons and their cornichons were divine! After we scraped the pot clean and could barely move, the server brought us a selection of digestive liquours...plum, raspberry, pear & "viperine"-a bottle that has a real viper snake inside. A couple shots of this stuff and magically you feel light again!

Auberge de le Fruitière
Les Perrières
74260 Les Gets
Tél: 04.50.79.89.22/04.50.79.70.04