Eats the World: La Flotte - Ile de Ré, France

So, as promised some more piccies and recommendations from our little trip to beautiful Ile de Ré. Next up was a trip to La Flotte.

A quaint harbour village, much smaller and quieter than St Martin but with all the charm (and another branch of La Martiniere if you're craving another hit of their delicious ice cream).

After a couple of drinks by the harbour (amazing people watching), we headed to Le Richelieu for dinner. We'd booked a table in advance and were extremely pleased to get a front row seat, with fabulous panoramic sea views.

It's quite an old fashioned venue, with dark red carpets and waiters in dicky bows. We went for the 'menu gastronomique' - six courses, including lobster and cheese for 65 euros.

An amuse bouche of refreshing cucumber gazpacho was perfect for a warm summer evening. Sauteed seafood in broth was extremely tasty but not particularly imaginative. The lobster course was much more interesting: lobster three ways - in filo pastry (a sort of lobster spring roll!), tartare and consomme. This was thoroughly enjoyable. Unfortunately, the main course was decidedly average and even less enjoyable as we ended up waiting an inordinately long time for it to arrive.

Cheese and puds were definitely the highlights of the meal. We were spoilt for choice with the cheese selection and thoroughly enjoyed our choices (afraid I don't know what they were called though!).

Desserts were pretty as a picture. We particularly enjoyed the lemon meringue pie, which came with a little pipette of raspberry coulis - a fun touch.

Petit fours were fantastic, although the staff were clearly ready to get rid of us at this point as they arrived as our desserts were cleared. With the bill.

It's hard to say if I would go back to Le Richelieu on another visit. Whilst the view and some of the courses were exceptional, the service and some of the food detracted from the overall experience. I'd probably have to try some more of the island's offerings before I could make a judgement... oh what a hardship that would be!