For The Love Of Bouillabaisse

From the moment my feet touched Provencal ground, my need for real Bouillabaisse became an obsession.  We made Bouillabaisse (like a fish stew, but so much better!) in Intermediate when we were learning about the Provence region, so one would assume that it would be everywhere in that area, right?  Wrong!  We only found it on a few select menus...one of which happened to be in the quaint little village, Villefranche Sur Mer.

The search for Bouillabaisse was only one reason for stopping there on our way back to Nice.  The other was this...

The view from the train station.  Isn't it beautiful?

It was too gorgeous to pass up!

This was may favorite sailboat.  If only I knew how to sail...

This guy may have a problem with his boat when he returns

Our plan was to find the restaurant, La Mère Germaine, grab a late lunch/early dinner, and then head back to Nice.  It was around 14:45 when we arrived, and we didn't realize until we got to the restaurant that it would be closing in between lunch and dinner.  The gentleman we were speaking with (who we later found out was the owner) told us they would reopen at 19:00.  We politely thanked him and walked away because it would definitely be ridiculous to wait around 3.5 hours in a tiny, somewhat desolate village just for fish soup, right?

Well, maybe that would have been the case had it just been fish soup...but people!  This wasn't just fish soup, this was Bouillabaisse, and I wasn't lying when I said that I had become mildly obsessed with it.  Mom, being the great woman that she is, let me decide (which is scary for anyone who knows me because I could be the world's most indecisive person), and she said that she was okay with either scenario: a. stay and wait for dinner at 19:00 or b. make our way back to Nice and try and find something to eat there.

We needed a few libations to give us some guidance, so we set up shop at a nearby cafe and discussed our options over a cold beer (or two). 

Cheers!

And it was as we were sitting at our table, and I was staring off into the exact scene below, that I realized...when am I ever again going to have the opportunity to be in this beautiful setting and eat real French Bouillabaisse in France??  Who knows?! 

So, the decision was made!  Mom ran down to the restaurant and put us down for 19:00.  It took about 30 minutes to solve the great conundrum: to stay or not to say.  Now the question was: what we were going to do for the next three hours?!

Well...

1.  We wandered around the petite village and took pictures...lots of them

2. We bought a baguette because I was starving (shocker!!).  The baguette, however, was a total letdown and that boulangerie was a mockery of French bread making.  It was bland and as hard as a rock...I scooped out what I could from the inside (which wasn't much), and gave the rest to the pigeons.  Even they wouldn't eat it.

3.  We picked out real estate.  This is the house I will buy when I make my millions.  Not too shabby, huh?

We got excited as the sun was setting because that meant it was getting closer to the dinner hour.  What did we do to celebrate?  Take more pictures!

19:00 was rapidly approaching, and it was finally time to head to the restaurant.  Hooray!  We weren't the first people there, so we didn't feel too lame waiting around all day.

La Mère Germaine (the grandmother of the current owner) fed the hungry GIs during WWII

  

The got me all prepared for my Bouillabaisse with a cute cloth bib (which we may or may not have permanently borrowed when we left...):

Crab cake with arugula salad...it was DELICIOUS!

Mom's dinner:  Spicy Curry Shrimp with Rice.  I still dream about this dish. 

The moment I had been waiting for had arrived!  (drum roll please....) 

Without further adieu, please meet my Bouillabaisse:

Isn't it lovely??

Every bite was oh so delicious, and the waiter kept coming around with refills of the soup whenever it was low.  It was totally worth the 3.5 hour wait!!!  My only complaint was that when we made it in class, we had the fish, plus potatoes and a mixture of vegetables (leeks, onions, and fennel), so you had a lot of "stuff" in the soup other than the liquid.  This Bouillabaisse, however, was just fish and potatoes, so while the flavor was excellent, I wanted more stuff. 

So, that is the story of the Bouillabaisse.  At the end of the trip, I asked Mom what her favorite part was, and she said it was the 3.5 hours we spent waiting for dinner.  It was incredibly relaxing and  freeing to have nothing to do and no where to go.  Although I caught a lot of grief for it at the time, we both agreed that was the best decision we made.

Comin' up?  We leave the French Riviera and head to the heart of Provence.

- a tout à l’heure!