Lunch in a UFO today.
It’s sitting in a French field, looking spectacularly out of place–as any self-respecting UFO would.
The owner tells us it’s coming up to two years now since they landed.
He built it himself, from packs–“like Ikea!” he says. Packs or no packs, it’s a piece of work and it revolves 360 degrees–as any self-respecting UFO would.
It’s beautiful inside with many features that are familiar to us: a high-tech kitchen, a dining area and toilets.
It has living quarters too and there are children’s toys lying around. This is obviously both a home and a work place.
The owners call it Dôme de Montmiral.
It is a couple of miles from the Castelnau of that name, though there’s about a thousand years of history separating them. We ask if there were any problems getting permission to build it there–sorry, to land it? “No, everyone was for it–but we had to go to the highest level.” Well, you would for a UFO…..
Enough of that!
The Dôme is an unusual restaurant, set in the middle of beautiful countryside in the north Tarn, here in southwestern France. Its shape resembles a flying saucer and it serves vegetarian food. A bioclimatic house, made from wood–it is self-sufficient in many ways.
This is the fantastic project of Valérie and Raymond Moncan. She is the cook and she’s passionate about it; quite a change, as she used to be a professor of Latin and Greek!
She serves a fixed menu–though you can have input when booking and she is sensitive to special needs.
I notice the shelves are full of cookbooks which I can’t resist investigating. The first one I pull out is titled: “Mal de Sucre” [the evil/curse of sugar]. I feel I’m in good hands!
Today we’re having lunch with Donald Douglas –aka “Captain McNeil”–my old enemy in Poldark. 
- Old rivals call it a day!
It’s his birthday and we are celebrating with his partner and other friends.
There are three courses for 25 euros with wine on top.
The food is different–more delicate than the usual restaurant vegetarian. In fact it is vegan–no dairy products. It’s tasty and lightly-spiced and perhaps a little other worldly…?
Shredded patés of beetroot, apple and mushroom with seasonings
Kitcheri of basmati rice & red lentils with vegetables
The sort of fare one might imagine being served in a UFO….!
Robin Ellis 