Sometimes whistle-stop trips have their drawbacks. While it’s all very well to dip yourself into a country overnight, the scheduling of planes, trains and automobiles often mitigates against throwing yourself into pure hedonism for 24 hours without recourse. Sunday morning saw an early rising, and a walk along the lake wall where the waves overspilled the bankside and wet our feet. Lausanne is quiet on Sunday mornings: the sky was grey, the breeze was high, and the sounds were of nature and nothing else. Refreshing: we were in the heart of Europe, in the centre of an international city, yet in the middle of nowhere.
We took coffee down at the Fleur de Pains bakery on Avenue d’Ouchy, and then prepared for Farid to pick us up and take us out for lunch. He’d planned a surprise location, but was constrained by the need to have me on a train to Geneva airport for 13:17. Trains in Switzerland are not late: they pull out of stations at the exact minute indicated, at the instant the second hand hits 12. We didn’t have much time to waste.
We drove up into the city centre - through which we had walked through the previous night - parked underground, and walked across a junction to the north-east corner, abutting which was the Restaurant de la Croix d’Ouchy. So far, so good: description meets reality. Inside, the restaurant was almost empty – not surprisingly, as it was just gone midday. Valerie was already there with children Olympe and Ulysse (very classical family), and we took our place at the table with them.
By this stage, the sun was streaming in the windows, and illuminating the interior. In my memory, the restaurant had bare stone walls – but I am not sure if that’s true, or if it’s something I have conjured up to fit my impression of a well-appointed, rustic idyll with sunbeams bouncing off the verticals. After some time, our waiter arrived, but unfortunately he brought with him neither his brain nor a basic proficiency in intelligible French. Not a clue what we were talking about, or our need to eat and run, or even what we were ordering. Yes, it may have been Sunday and a day of leisure in Calvin-influenced Switzerland, but someone should have reminded him that working to a Sri Lankan pace really doesn’t cut it when you have trains to catch and places to go. By the time we got the orders in, it was almost 12:30.
Farid ordered a great bottle of Amarone, which we opened just as the starters arrived. I ordered a beef carpaccio with some truffle oil, and it was perfect. The meat was very tender, and hit the palate spot on. Always a dish I tend to eat quickly, the added time pressure meant that I probably had the intensified experience of my taste buds leaking adrenaline as they sensed the flavours. Nevertheless, I couldn’t dwell on the starter too long, as I had one eye on my watch and the other looking out for the waiter. He came, finally, with my main course: three large scallops, an enormous (I mean about 6 inches of) king prawn, rice, and a local take on ratatouille, with a creamy fish sauce. The presentation was beautiful, the taste even more so. Best of all, it came in two portions: the exact same plate was to follow, once I finished the first one. 
Worst of all: it was now 13:10, and my train was leaving in seven. Farid and I ran from the restaurant, drove to the station, and I caught the train with fully twenty seconds to spare. If I could have taken an extra ten minutes in that restaurant, I would have: the main course was composed of some of the most succulent shellfish that I have come across, and in a landlocked country too! I have no idea of the prices on this menu (though being Switzerland, it coulnd't have been cheap): I passed a mixture of euro and francs to Kruno, and hoped he’d take care of the bill. Haven’t heard anything about it since, so I guess I must have just about covered it.There is no doubt but that I will visit the Restaurant de la Croix d’Ouchy on my return to Lausanne. By then, I am hoping that I will have planned my schedule a little more liberally, that the waiters will have learned French properly, and that my double-service main course will be appreciated leisurely and in full.
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The Score
5.0 Food and Drink
2.0 Service
4.5 Décor
4.5 Ambience
3.0 Value
4.0 Overall Rating
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