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Fine Dining in
Northern France
Fishsoup "Pérard"
(restaurant, oyster bar en fishmonger)
62520 Le Touquet
Le Touquet is often called
"Paris-Plage". This
seaside resort was very popular with wealthy Parisians,
at he
beginning of last century, witness the extravagant residences
in Art Nouveau style.
It all starts on April 25, 1837,
when notary Jean-Baptiste
Daloze buys a plot, simply called "Le Touquet", for the
pricely sum of 120,000 francs. In return the wealthy Frenchman receives
4000 acres of dunes, to make a hunting ground of it. Daloze's fortune was made long ago
and the man will reside more and more in his new domain, including the
2000 acres which he planted with pine trees. In 1874 Daloze invites the owner
of the French newspaper "Le Figaro", Hippolyte
de Villemessant,
on his property for a hunting party. The newspaper magnate asks his
friend why he doens't convert his plot into a seaside resort. Daloze decides to follow his
friends advise, and renames his domain "Paris-Plage".
The new resort is a challenge for
the highest paid architects of the country and soon
the reputation of "Le Touquet Paris-Plage"
exceeds the country's borders. In 1894, visiting Englishman John R. Whitley noticed the new resort and its potential. Whitley has higher degrees from
various universities, speaks four languages (English, French, German
and Italian) and loves "project starts". From the heirs of Jean-Baptiste Daloze, he buys a
plot near the seafront and establishes the "Mayville Company
Ltd", supported by a committee of more than fifty members, including
Louis Pasteur, Sarah Bernhardt and the Duke of Morny.
On December 16, 1902 Whitley buys
the remaining 2,700 acres from the heirs of Daloze and obtains the
majority of Le Touquet Paris-Plage. Whitley procures that by the end of the "golden
years" 1920, just before the great stock market crash, most of the
British glitterati have a cottage in Le Touquet. A
private airport is opened and that is when the English smart set start
"hopping" the English Channel to play golf, attend
the races
at the local "Horse Racing Course" or play an evening of
big-spender in
the casino. It is said that Ian Fleming was in Le Touquet when he found his
inspiration for his fictional casino Royale-les-Eaux in
the novel "Casino Royale" ...
Currently only 5500 souls
(called Touquettois) live permanently in the resort, but during the
holidays find the streets are thronged. Le
Touquet also offers a large number of hotels, including some very
exclusive, as the four star Westminster Hotel & Spa,
with rooms with price tags up to € 850 per night
(+£700.00). The
atmosphere at Le Touquet is hard to describe, you might label
it as a kind of "miniature Monaco".
Amid all the exclusive boutiques
and posh restaurants of Le Touquet, there is a restaurant famous for
its ... soup. It was founded by Serge
Pérard, born in 1921, who is nowadays nicknamed "the pope
of fish soup". It
all started during World War II, when this part of France was occupied
by the Germans and there were very strict rules for fishing at sea. Serge Pérard went with
his friend Maurice to the port of Boulogne Sur Mer to find if anything
was worth picking up and found that despite the war and food
shortages, the fish heads were nearly free.
Back home Serge boiled the
fish heads and ate them with some potatoes. Later that night he tasted the
broth left, added some herbs and onions to it and enjoyed his
first fish soup.
For nearly 20 years Serge
Pérard kept the fishsoup recipe for himself, while he
gradually improved it to perfection, adding shellfish and
saffron. In
1963 there was no fish-eating culture in France, but Serge
Pérard decided to take the chance and opened the first fish
restaurant in the country. His soup was a great success in the small Le
Touquet and when Parisian beau monde went back to work in the
capital,after their holidays, they craved after the soup
Pérard.
 To
meet that demand Serge spend some time in Paris, where he
learned how his soup could be preserved. From
then on, the fish soup of Pérard is for sale in sterilized
jars. First
on a small scale in the kitchen of the restaurant on Rue de Metz, but
meanwhile, nearly half a century later, there are about ten thousand
jars a day made in a factory on the outskirts of Le Touquet. Pérard once wanted to
transfer his soup business to the fishing port of Boulogne,
but the city of Le Touquet called it a "landmark" and offerd
Pérard a piece of land. The soup of Pérard is exported to over
twenty countries, even to Saudi Arabia, where it is very
popular!
The Pérard restaurant is still on the same site as in 1963,
on the rue de Metz. The
interior hasn't changed in style and feel in all those years, with its pink tablecloths, orange chandeliers and
copper decoration it is like a time machine. The dining room seats up to eighty gourmets.
Besides the restaurant there is a fish and an
oyster bar. It sometimes
happenes that yours truly drives from De Panne to Le
Touquet only to buy a nice fat fresh sole, of over
750 grams... The
quality of the fish and the friendliness and expertise of the
fishmongers at Pérard make the journey worth it.
Serge Pérard is now over
eighty, but his business is still on. Pérard has worked hard for it
and for his soup and his motto is:
"I'm not rich, but my soup is"
More details on "Pérard":
visit the WEBSITE
Fishmonger, Oyster
Bar and Restaurant Perard
67 rue de Metz
62520 Le Touquet
http://www.restaurantperard.com/
De Panne (BE)
November 10, 2010
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use this link to contact me
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TRAVEL TIPS !
Practical advice on your holiday to France
Estaminet "La
Péniche"
cultural restaurant in a converted barge,
62340
Guînes
Restaurant "Le
Grand Air"
spectacular location on the Mont de Fiennes, with panoramic view over
Calais and the English Channel,
62132 Fiennes
Restaurant
"Gare des Années Folles"
theme-restaurant in an old railway station,
62840
Sailly sur la Lys
Estaminet "L'
Hazewinde"
Flemish restaurant,
regional specialties,
59114 Saint Sylvestre-Cappel
Brasserie "L'
Ocean"
situated on the seafront,
62152 Hardelot-Plage
Fish Soup
"Pérard"
fishmongers, restaurant, oyster bar in the
fashionable Paris-Plage,
62520 Le Touquet
Brasserie "Le
Chatillon"
Port restaurant,
fish specialties,
62200 Boulogne Sur Mer
Hotel-
Restaurant
"Le Fontainebleau"
hotel-restaurant,
regional specialties,
62610 Ardres
Fast Food Resto's
Buffalo Gril (recommended)
Flunch, Pizza Paï,
McDonalds, Quick
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