Love to lunch at Le Lunch...

I think by now we could safely say that I love a lunch and we most certainly can accept that the French love to lunch - I have not yet met a French person who doesn't stop for a proper lunch. By proper lunch I mean table, chairs, cutlery, china and food on the plate kind of lunch not the take-away sandwich fast food kind of lunch that I munched on in my past life. I know that, 'breakfast is the most important meal of the day' and that this wise platitude is based on sound medical reasoning but if we are talking in terms of eating pleasure, I vote for lunch every time.

How far would you drive for a good lunch? I think the answer is that distance becomes irrelevant when there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Our rainbow yesterday were the Calanques of Marseille - the limestone cliffs that push out into the Mediterranean Sea - and our pot of gold was a restaurant aptly entitled, Le Lunch.

the first glimpse of the Med at Calanque de Sormiou 

Le Lunch sits by the sea at the base of the Calanque de Sormiou outside the port city of Marseille. To find this out of the way treasure was a navigational nightmare; if I had been behind the wheel we would still be on the side of the road, turning the map upside down and praying for divine intervention. Mr FF is one of those guys with that male inbuilt sense of direction - he somehow managed to find this hideaway first go. 

le lunch

The restaurant is at the end of a long and very narrow road that winds up and over the calanque. At the same time as reserving a table at Le Lunch you must leave the details of your car registration which then enables access to this private road. The drive through these limestone cliffs is spectacular and that first glimpse of blue makes the 90 minute journey from home worthwhile. 

the view from the restaurant

Le Lunch is very simple and low key in decor with the same approach to the cuisine; Le Lunch is all about the location. I opted for the grilled fish of which there was a choice of sea-bream, sea bass and red mullet. It was presented whole, then de-boned at the table and served with a whisper of olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt - light, delicious and perfect on such a scorchingly hot day. 

marseille in the distance

Driving back up and out is just as dramatic as arriving - the views of the city of Marseille are framed by the natural wilderness of the limestone calanques on either side. 

Marseille is not St Tropez and Le Lunch is not Cub 55 but that is the beauty and the charm. Le lunch was le fab, xv

Le Lunch

Calanque de Sormiou

13009 Marseille

+33 4 91 25 15 37