Auberge Tendasque

Practical

65, avenue du 16 Septembre 1947, 0640 TENDE, France

Telephone +33 93 04 62 26

"Cuisine préparée par le patron"

Fermé le mardi

We once found it necessary to make a reservation, but I think that was Easter Sunday, and there is usually a table available.

Cuisine

The style is French regional, fairly plain but good quality. Starters include onion soup with gratin topping, shepherd's salad (various interesting leaves and goats' cheese), terrine - it was duck this time but sanglier on a previous visit; main courses include trout (fresh from the tank outside the door), steak, duck breast in raisin sauce (the special of the day last time); for dessert there is at least one kind of fruit tarte, ice-creams, 'surprise à la sauce chocolate', and sometimes a very good chocolate mousse. You can choose cheese instead of pudding - or as well. The wine list is serviceable, and a jug of water is provided free without having to ask. It is not a place to go for startling innovations, but if you like traditional things well done and served with a personal touch by the chef himself, then you will like this place.

How to get there

To get there we recommend you fly Air UK from Stansted to Nice, and then take the train to Tende. There are two routes: the direct one is less interesting (and no faster) than the one via Vintimille/Ventimiglia (but take your passport as there is a small chance that you will need to show it when you change trains in Italy). You can alternatively take the chopper from Nice airport to Monte Carlo and pick up the train there - the nice man at Monte Carlo station will give you a photocopied local timetable which he appears to have done using Excel.

There aren't many places in the world where a railway line has to do a spiral in a tunnel inside a mountain to emerge above itself.

The restaurant is opposite the Mairie, a short walk from the station in Tende - just ask the first person you see.

Things to do

While you are in Tende, particularly if you have just come for lunch and are waiting for the 1725 train back down the valley, there are numerous things to do including:

walk round the old village and visit the Cathedral and the terraced cemetery up the hill

follow the path from the cemetery up the back of the mountain to the chapel on the ridge overlooking the town (but you won't get quite all the way if you don't like steps cut into a cliff 1,000 feet above the valley floor) - yes you can get up and down in time to catch the train

walk up the right-hand valley road (not the one through the tunnel into Italy): this is passable by pushchair, wheelchair or whatever

take the train just through the tunnel to Italy to see what a really tacky ski resort looks like (train timetables may not fit with the day trip from Monte Carlo)

or, if you are there sufficiently late in the year that the snow has melted, take the 4x4 excursion to the valley of rock carvings (we haven't managed this, not having been there late enough) (this takes a whole day and definitely can't be done on the day trip from Monte Carlo).

Cost

In February 1996 lunch for two came to FRF 269 for three courses including a bottle of house red (recommended). If you're staying in Monte Carlo don't eat there, go to Tende for lunch: you get better food for less money at the Auberge Tendasque even after paying the train fare!