Archive for the ‘Food and drink’ Category
Restaurants in Angoul̻me Рeven the best no longer open all hours?
One of the joys of Angoulême is its many restaurants – at the last count there were about 80 restaurants in the Charente capital in all. Many of them. including some of the best, are based around the old historic centre of Angoulême.
However, according to the regional paper the Charente Libre, while there may be plenty of restaurants in Angoulême, finding one to eat in at the end of the evening is no easy matter. The simple question: ‘Is is too late to get something to eat?’ is apparently being heard more and more as many places close their kitchens by 10.30pm. ‘We get asked it regularly, even if it’s still only 9.30pm or 1.30pm,’ staff at Lieu-Dit, rue de Genève, told the newspaper. This restaurant serves meals until 11pm even if ‘during the week we can send out the last coffees at 9.30pm because there are no later customers’.
The beat goes on…clubs and discos stay open until 7am
Night owls and those who simply have to keep raving until dawn are in luck. A new regulation has come into affect across the country that will standardise closing times for clubs and discos across the Poitou-Charentes region, and indeed across the whole country. Read the rest of this entry »
Cognac industry set to need 2,000 workers
The jobless total seems to keep going up in France. But there is one area at least where they are more concerned about finding enough people to do the work – and that is in the cognac industry. It’s estimated that over the next decade there will be up to 2,000 jobs going in the viticulture industry in that area.  ‘The viticulteurs are going but they have to be replaced,’ says Jérôme Prioton, president of the industry’s Syndicat des viticulteurs bouilleurs de cru (SVBC). ‘The land is still there!’ He was present at a special day held last week to familiarise potential workers with the demands and conditions of work for those in the industry. It was held at vineyards belonging to the Jean Martell cognac house at Javrezac, and attracted fifteen people. Read the rest of this entry »
Pineau cocktail anyone?
When it comes to making cocktails out of local drinks, there’s no doubt that cognac rules the roost. But pineau producers in the Charente and Charente-Maritime don’t want to be left behind. So, late last year the industry’s marketing body the Comité national du pineau des Charentes staged the final of its national cocktail contest at Jarnac. Read the rest of this entry »