Club Arnage

Travelling home from Le Mans to the Caen, I stopped at a quality 'Routier' but last year couldn't find it. I've been there twice and rated the food and value.

It was a popular stop for the Brits and I can remember its a bungalow road cafe, located on the right when going North, with parking outside and also lorry parking space across the road. I assumed it was somewhere north of Alencon, not as far as Falaise, but not really sure.

I think that they had logs to divide the parking spaces up.

Any ideas chaps or even alternative places to aim for.

Regards
Bryan C

La Croix Blanche - between Sees and Gace

Thanks mate.
I'll mark it on my map. Possibly hitting it about Tuesday lunchtime !
Regards

Bryan C

We always stop at a place just outside Gace too. On the RHS when going south, on a t junction. The good part about it is that they sell fuel as well as food. The bad point is that the food is diabolical. But hey, it's traditional!

Depending on which day you head back home (this place is always jammed on Sunday evening) there is no better venue than L'Auberge de la Croix Margot on the north side of Beaumont sur Sarthe. Simple but excellent food - you can sit outside and watch the world go by and they welcome (and photograph - for their pin-board) race fan guests. If you've got a lazy drive back on Monday it's perfect for lunch.

I stopped for lunch a couple of years ago, and had a very fine lunch and a bottle of wine...oops I for got I was by myself and the nominated driver... nodding off to sleep on the way back! I do not drink on the way back now.

>Martini...

Matt - a fine eaterie and no mistake! Hoping to do the usual stop on Monday after the race. A damn shame you won't be there with us.

How about McDonalds at Valenciennes for all the dutch/belgian/german guys
It's after the last péage heading to Belgium, exit 21 on the A2

But hard to find downtown- 30min driving, 10min eating ;D

Ricardo! Or should we refer to you as Sir Lurksalot?
Laydees and gennlemen, CA should hear more from this dude. His avatar speaks volumes and this is the man that got me started on this Le Mans lark, back in '83. He's not missed an addition since 1981 and has always been a central figure in trips over the years.
I'm very sorry not to ba able to make the gig this year Rich. Give my fondest to the team and knock the living snot out of it like you always do. Have fun.

Might stop there on our way home, otherwise it will be the MacD on the Belgian/Dutch border I guess..

That's faking time though, that one has a McDrive!
(and my truck doesn't fit, yeehar!) ;D

eating in the car vs 4 months old Alfa Romeo ;) ;D

drinking and smoking is ok, but I don't want sweet&sour on my seats ;D

There any Mcdonalds/cheapo fast food eateries on the Calais/Le Mans route?

If you come off the A16 at Boulogne, at the N42 to St Omer junction, head into Boulogne, after a 100 yards, left at roundabout, voila McD's. Think there is a Buffalo Grill there as well.

Yet another great thread.

Starts off talking about FOOD, end up talking about MacSh***e!

We ended up (eating?) there, near Carrefour last year on the Monday after fixing my clutch pipe.

I didn't enjoy it.

In a country where even bread is an artform, MacYuck!!!

Not another time.

Is "Buffalo Grill" the place where you have to go round the outside?

Sorry!

We went to Buffalo Grill at Rouen on the way home in '04 (coach trip). I had a nosebleed, and a piece of very raw steak. Superb!

Enjoyed the steak though.

I've eaten 'en croute' does that count?

JC, love it...

i agree but the maccy D in LM has posh bogs early in teh weekends proceedings, nice place for a relaxing dump

Known the world over as a McShit

I'm pretty sure Chris Z has been into the MickeyDees lavs in the airport for a McW*nk. It's the self abuse equivalent of fast food; instantly gratifying but ultimately unsatisfactory.

And do ask Steve Brown about his "McPiss" in Regent Street after the Rugby World Cup parade.

We will be looking for a pit-stop on the way down from Cherbourg any suggestions anybody????????? hopefully not authentic monseur Macy dees!!!!!

I had to, I was facing imminent kidney failure  ::)  - all that falling over water and nothing to soak it up with.

Macdonalds are you lot having me on!  Best food in the world and you want to eat reconstituted head-meat and cows' feet.  Have you ever seen how they make those things?

Here here termie its all " lips n assho*es" had pastis,assiete jambon crudite in mind !!!!

moi aussi!

Termie, each to their own, but I have two problems with your statement. No, three problems actually.

First, it isn't always possible to sit down to a proper lunch and sometimes eating on-the-hoof is unavoidable. I think I can safely say without contradiction that  French savoury fast food is easily the worst in the world. Slimy, salty, French chips are horrid beyond words, the kebabs would be banned in the UK and their burgers are an utter disgrace. And if anyone has ever been offered a baguette with a more imaginitive filling than jambon fromage then I will eat my Foie Gras.

Secondly, I hate McDs, and everything it stands for. But they do not put cheek meat, lips, bottoms or other mechanically reclaimed meat products into their burgers. They use good fore-quarter beef cuts, shoulder etc. A friend of mine is a beef farmer and he supplies McD's and he's been round the factory. Their "Thick Shakes" are 80% lard mind...

Thirdly, I cannot agree that French food is the best in the world. It relinquished that title about forty years ago. I mean, CHANGE THE BLOODY MENU! French food has not advanced one inch since my first trip in 1973, nor have their dreary net-curtained establishments. Taking a risk for a french auberge means putting the toilets next to the kitchen. The cuisine is stale and trapped in a post-war cliche of itself. Sure, some of it's cooked very well and some isn't but it always seems samey as if the Chef's given up trying. And as for the toffee nosed waiters, I'm surprised I haven't physically assaulted one yet. I'm not saying there's anything actually wrong with it but it's just so very ordinary these days. Offer me a chance to eat in either Rome, Barca, London or Paris and Paris would come last every single time. So it's my contention French cuisine needs a rocket under it. In the meantime I can be found at the Buffallo Grill....

Et une bon cafe calvar pour finir!!!!!!! are you buying termie??

Well, Mr Zarze, I have not met one toffee nosed waiter here in the 40 plus years I've been holidaying in this country with friends and family.  I say "bonjour" as soon as I go into a restaurant/shop/bar here and feel welcome straight away.  Now  I live here and could not have been made to feel more welcome.  Why not try xenophobes annonymous.com?
Struggle to find a grotty food establishment too.  Eat well and am always made to feel welcome.  Don't miss UK one little bit. 

Zarsey,
Never thought about it, but you're right. As far as I can recall, the French food I have eaten has been pony, for the most part. And I don't always eat in roadside auberge.

Maybe it's like the UK, if you know where to eat, you can have some fantastic meals.

There's a lot of rubbish places out there (in France and the UK), but I must say, I find it easier to find very good food in the UK.

French cuisine; the best in the world? Rubbish. You don't see many French chefs on "Ready, Steady, Cook" do you?

there are some strong feelings there I think!!!,I now refuse to eat out in the uk (appart from some indian resto's) because most offer home cooked food which turns out to be "potted tasteless muck out the freezer" which by the time its been neucked in the micro then shoved under the grill for a couple of mins is totally ruined, oh and then when you finally get your food its cold!!!,I prefer to cook for myself that way I know what I'm getting, am I wrong?  ???

Alibongo,
as I said, I think there is a lot of rubbish around. You have to know where to go.

I know Fax won't like this ;), because this is a motorsport forum, but what about a thread about eating/drinking recommendations?

I know what your saying dude its just we have been disapointed so so many times eating in the uk that we just dont bother any more, I used to drive a truck round france and I have had some trully fantastic food and some of the best was in little workers resto's cooked and served by madam !! and cheap too, I will never forget when I got weekended in the Colmar region and the locals were having a festival du cochon (poor old piggys) and I was invited to dine with the villagers phew I was totally stuffed!!!!! oh and that bacon and sausagesand sauercraut.........sorry just drooled over my key board !!!!!!

Ok, Ok. I'll get a job as a trans Euro trucker, and wait to be converted!

Bon Scoff, everyone.

Sorry ;D ;D ;D

Termie, you've really hit on something here. As far a waiting staff go, I treat everyone the same regardless of which country they are from or indeed which country I am in. When I tip I always pay it cash, I never pay the service charge on the bill as this is so often used by unscrupulous proprietors to subsidise minumum wage rates and is a disgrace. Waiting staff deserve nothing but respect. I know, I did it myself once. So I always try to be polite, diffident even, I smile and even try to talk the lingo.

Having said that, you must be the only person in the world who's never had a French waiter who is either rude or treats you as an unreconstructed philistine because you are English. Maybe your being fluent in French helps here but it's not my experience.

The last meal I had in France is a case in point, in Deauville last year. The waiter forgot the whole main course of our 5 course "price compris". When I very quietly pointed out that it was usual to eat pudding after the main, he became incandescent. Puce in the face with anger, he went into a screaming paddy fit, flecks of spittle landing on the table. I understand enough French to know that he was railing against the English and what he was saying really wasn't terribly complimentary. The restaurant owner was charm personified by the way and had us eating out of his hand in no time, the complementary Calvados helped no end.

I have to say, being called a xenophobe by a Francophile is the equivalent of being accused of racism by Hitler. I have friends in and from all around the world. Most of my family live abroad, yes including in France, and it is one of the delights of life to enjoy other cultures and their wonderful people regardless of race or skin colour. You only have to read my recent comments on India to understand that and as such I'm really a bit miffed by your unfounded comment. The French on the other hand are to my mind the exact opposite and this is the reason they have riots; they cannot assimilate with other cultures. The British are forty years ahead of them on this score. The French have to be the most closed-minded people in Europe. They never try anything new or "foreign" and the "sans culottes" have an inbred belief that French and France is always best. Well let me tell you it isn't. The rest of the world, believe it or not, does actually have something else to offer.

I note that you have not even begun to address my valid on the moribund state of French cuisine. So maybe we can continue this debate over a glass of vin rouge, or heaven forbid, a pint of foaming English ale.  ;)

Hey there zarsey you have some very good points there, one thing about the french is that they do tend to lookafter france and the french first unlike the uk where it is a free for all and the "locals" suffer at the expence of the E.U I think we can thank our wonderful tony blair and his mates for that!! (and all the past govs)

Did somebody mention proper beer?  Now that I miss!  Didn't mean to offend anybody but I hear so much brown stuff talked about the French as a race when, like everybody else, there are good and bad that I get very wound up by the subject!

Got to eat humble pie, things have obviously been changing as far as resto's are concerned, we booked a table at a restaurant in Arnage for sat nite 18 of us, what a load of crap!!! would have been better going to mac donalds !!! all that was on the menu was omlet n chips, sausage n chips, griiled ham n chips or salad and it was all crap ,(if I had been on my own I would have left) we toasted the establishment as the worst restaurant in France!!!!!!!!! >:( if you want to know which one it was, comming from the roundabout on the main street it was the last one on the left going out of town .......tip for next year... buy a bag of crisps.... far cheaper and just as filling >:( :-\ :'(