At this point I propose to construct a French itinerary, not none starting out in Paris, but rather on the assumption that one flies in Barcelona and drives north. I chose this route for the very idiosyncratic reason that there are some parts of France that I like a lot better than others and these are where I tend to travel. Others will doubtless have different preferences.
The French, as a people, are serious eaters. Typically, they will spend a larger proportion of their disposable income on food than either Americans or Brits do. This obviously leaves them with less to spend on their housing. This translates itself into the hotel world in a noticeable manner. While the five star palaces are as elaborate and luxurious as anywhere in the world, these days they range in their prices from the merely outrageous to the effectively ruinous, To cite but one example, the cheapest double at the Hotel du Cap on the Cote D'azur goes for $ 680 for the night, a suite will cost you $2,200. At the lower levels the prices, while still high, are at least in the range of many travellers. However, one often finds that an establishment that boasts of a truly marvelous restaurant will have rooms, that while certainly scrupulously clean and adequate to one's needs, may well be small and furnished in a glaringly outmoded way; the bathrooms, while always serviceable and clean, will tend to be oldfashioned as well, a pull chain toilet is often still encountered. (A word of caution here, in the southwest, in cafes and gas stations, one still often finds oneself confronted with a Turkish toilet, unlike in Spain, where the toilet culture is at a very high level). One should not let oneself be put off by any of this: one is there to eat and to see the country, not to wallow in luxury.
Oust is a tiny, picturesque village on the northern slope of the Pyrenees. The Hotel de la Poste is an old fashioned, late nineteenth century building, the rooms are quite small, the furniture seems to be original, the usual French wardrobes which, in most French hotels take the place of closets, tend to be hard to open and close. But it's extremely quiet at night and the mattresses are good. There's a pleasant garden in which, in good weather, one takes one's meals and a small outdoor pool. But the food is absolutely superb. It's not your ultra fahionable nouvelle cuisine, but nor is it grandma's cooking. What it is rather, is first rate French cooking as it was half a century ago, and to my taste nothing surpasses tha level. There is a very fine fixed price three course menu that goes for under forty dollars and I've never tried anything on it that I didn't like: I recall having a duo of slightly sauteed goose and duck foie gras as a first course which to this day brings tears to my eyes. And if one isn't up to two big meals on the same day, for lunch there is a bakery nearby which makes the absolutely best croissants I have tasted, the most buttery, the most crisp. Next door there's a butcher shop with a very decent assortment of lunchmeats and cheeses and there is nolack of pretty spots to picnic in within easy reach of Oust. A room at the hotel goes for about $75 for the night, including a very nice continental breakfast with a generous assortment of homemade jams. The surrounding countryside has great charm, there a re good hiking and biking trails and, for the more adventurous,one can rent kayaks for white water boating.
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