Sundays at my grandmother's house usually consisted of a tasty roast and a long walk in the Hertfordshire countryside before heading back for a pot of tea with some biscuits and a game of Bagatelle.
It turns out that ours was actually billards japonais, a later variation of the French original that would one day morph into pinball. But that is beside the point and of course has no bearing on my rose-tinted reminiscences.
It turns out that ours was actually billards japonais, a later variation of the French original that would one day morph into pinball. But that is beside the point and of course has no bearing on my rose-tinted reminiscences.
The bedraggled-looking Bagatelle restaurant near Geneva's Cornavin station has nothing fun, exciting or quick-fire about it but it's as good as any for a leisurely lunch, and we've been here long enough to know that the painfully slow service is only to be expected in a long-established Swiss eatery.
On our recent visit, Monsieur Gourmand had filets de perche (average) and frites (a bit too yellow and straight-out-of-the freezer looking) while I had an enormous salade de foie de volaille - that's chicken liver - with generous chunks of walnut and raisins and rather too much dressing. (Yes, I do really like liver. And sprouts. And anchovies).
Seeing the man on the next table brandishing his money in vain for an age before finally paying, and another man sit down only to be completely ignored, Monsieur Gourmand and I didn't waste any time on dessert or coffee.
Like the old bagatelle set languishing in storage, this restaurant could do with being dusted off and given a new lease of life.
Bagatelle, Boulevard James-Fazy 20, 1201 Genève
+41 (0)22 732 26 29
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