Les Desserts

When we first came to the South-West, the menu in the simpler restaurants offered you both cheese and fresh fruit (‘f and f’ as we used to say) and no confected desserts. Today it is all change. Cheese is sometimes offered at a supplement to the prix fixe either as a separate course or as a dessert. Gone is the bowl of fresh fruit, except that a fruit salad (compôte de fruits) makes an occasional appearance. Instead, the fashionable choice rests between something chocolatey or a sugary confection topped with a mountain of crème chantilly. Or both.