LA MÈRE GERMAINE
World history: Germaine Halap and her husband Louis Brau opened a restaurant right on the port in 1938. Towards the end of the Second World War, many US Navy ships were moored off the bay of Villefranche sur Mer and Germaine cooked for and lovingly looked after many of the sailors. She becomes the famous MÈRE, mother of the sailors, – beyond the end of the war and beyond the military! Americans love such heartbreaking stories and many US film stars made and still make pilgrimages to MÈRE GERMAIN. Later, one of her daughters continued to run the restaurant with her husband, Rémi Blouin, and today the next generation, Thierry Blouin, maintains the balance between tradition and modernity.

LE TEMPLE DU POISSON  “Ah – Monsieur Schmidt, comment allez-vous?” “Très bien et vous?” There are tables inside and on the large terrasse  – and small tables right by the water. At lunchtime and in the evening – just right by the water, on the Quai des Admirals Courbet! I’m sitting in the midday sun and in the middle of a harbor motif by a French Impressionist. “La vie des hommes c’est une chasse du bonheur.” Men’s lives are a hunt for happiness. And happiness is sitting on the harbor at lunchtime, enjoying the freshest fish on the Côte: marinated salmon, sole foamed in brown butter and a bottle of Chablis Grand Cru – s’il vors plaît. Unforgettable!