SAINT PAUL DE VENCE: One last note regarding my endless summer vacation. The last night in August, a couple of weeks ago we had the most delicious dinner with friends at their restaurant in Saint Paul de Vence. Nathalie and Fred own the Restaurant, Le Tilleul, which is located in the old village of St. Paul just when you enter the old entrance to the village. We sat at a sunny place under a hundred year old lime tree and enjoyed being at a friend`s owned restaurant without the need of reading the menu and making our own choice.

Fred is half French, half Swedish. He grew up in Saint Paul and then lived in Munich, where he met his wife Nathalie, who has a French mother and a German father. Some years ago they decided to return to live in Saint Paul and manage their restaurant with lots of love and care. While Fred is always looking around to see if all his guests are happy and enjoying the evening, Nathalie tells me about their endless ideas of making Le Tilleul unique and even in the winter months when the French Riviera is less crowded worth visiting for a lunch outside in the autumn sun or an evening with friends in their cosy interior of the restaurant which is designed by the French interior designer Jacqueline Morabito.

After a coupe of chilled Champagne we eat Tuna Sashimi, Foie Gras, bean salad and chilled Gazpacho. You can smell, see and taste that everything is freshly cooked by the Chef with organic ingredients and ripe tasty vegetables and herbs. The main course is sole with sautéed vegetables and for desert I chose a Vacherin which is a typical desert for this region. A meringue with a scoop of homemade coconut ice-cream, topped with red berries, ripe melon and tropic fruits. We drink their house rosé which comes in a beautiful handwritten labeled bottle (also designed by Jacqueline Morabito).

We will come back in December for a lunch outside, wrapped in blankets, our faces warmed by the Riviera’s winter sun enjoying a light lunch with Fred & Nathalie.