Saturday, June 26, 2010

Places We Love...


Les Demoiselles Dupuy
People always ask us where and what we eat while we’re traveling across France, so we thought we share one of our favorite restaurants which we never fail to hit (often more than once!) during our buying trips. We’ve been eating seafood and fresh fish at this place for a decade. Our mouths start salivating like Pavlov dogs as soon as we see the sign for SETE on the autoroute!

Owner Gilles Dupuy is a talented architect and artist (his paintings hang throughout the restaurant) and he and his crew (including renowned oyster shucker César shown above at right) are always there to greet us so it really feels like going home.

Leslie and chef Demoiselle de cuisine.


Vintage oyster plates hang overhead...


One word to describe the food: FRESH. Everything is fresh, fresh, fresh, often caught within just a few hours of serving and the ambiance is straight out of a Hemingway novel - very old salt, broken in and worn (in a good way), with a grotto-esque interior and nautical décor overlooking the port of Sete. You you can watch the fishing boats go by while you eat and listen to the seagulls calling for a table scrap. The terrasse outside is a “zone pietone” (no cars) so far from the noise and crowds of the more touristy areas.

 Jean-Noel is so happy to have arrived!

 Jean-Marc too... the Picpoul is nice and crisp!

The raw bar, especially the oysters and the sea urchins (Jean-Marc’s favorite), are sublime of course, but the Demoiselles do all kinds of fish and seafood a la plancha (the calamari is to die for) or prepared in all sorts of different ways.

Sea urchins...

Oysters gratinées...

Mussels gratinées...

Squid a la plancha...

One of the talented Demoiselles in the kitchen...

Les Demoiselles Dupuy offers a truly authentic Setois experience. We're heading to France next week for more buying, and more plates of fruits de mer - our tastebuds are rapt in anticipation!

Hail César!




Les Demoiselles Dupuy
4 quai Maximin Licciardi
34200 SÈTE - FRANCE
(33) 04 67 74 03 46

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