Offbeat Eats

While I’ve had a more than a few truly memorable and enjoyable meals in my life, I’ve had a few that were truly touchstones, memories that I could return to and remember both the simple enjoyment and the thrill of something new. And I long ago learned that too often those touchstones were fleeting moments that can’t be recreated; returning to the same place, and ordering the same item, often doesn’t work. Too often you experience the pain of nostalgia, revisiting an old favorite and discovering that part of the ineffable nature of the experience is gone due to a change in context: the experience itself has wilted, the company is different, or even the fact that the person you are is no longer the person you were, and instead of striking a chord the experience reminds you of change. But sometimes it does work, and it resonates like a bell, and that brings me to… L’Ardoise.

This particular visit to France was a work trip, with visits to both a partner company in Grenoble, France, and another visit to the Paris Air Show (yeah, life is hard, isn’t it?). This time I took a completely different approach on getting to Grenoble; we fly into Paris Charles De Gaulle and took the TGV down to Lyon, catching a local train to Grenoble. This looked great on paper, but two major hitches in that plan: first, the baggage handlers at CDG took a full hour and 40 minutes to unload the aircraft and deliver my bags, which was just slow enough that I barely missed my train to Lyon. But after an hour and half relaxing with an espresso, I caught the next one, with a surprisingly smooth and efficient trip to Lyon (so, travel hint here: take the TGV: it’s one of the best train services out there). But then the trip from Lyon to Grenoble was interesting: recent rains had resulted in a landslide over the tracks, so they had to route us on a very scenic, but very circuitous, trip through the French Alps via Chambéry. However, we still arrived in Grenoble in time to get settled into our hotel and meet up with our hosts at one of their favorite spots in downtown Grenoble: Brasserie Chavant.