Le Guide
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| Thanks to InkandElm |
Author: Numerous trusted restaurant reviewers
Publisher: Not known but probably self-published
Source book: Monsieur Pamplemousse and the French Solution by Michael Bond
Le Guide, no doubt heavily modelled on the Guide Michelin, reviews thousands of hotels and restaurants across France; 10,000 or so. Le Guide awards one, two, or three stock pots as a guide to quality, and a Red Stock Pot for the best restaurant. Apparently there is also a supreme accolade: the Golden Stock Pot Lid.
Le Guide also monitors the hotels and restaurants that do not make the grade for whatever reason: over-fancy food obviously fresh from the microwave or tired rooms that no one would want to stay in.
And after each visit the Le Guide insprectors have to fill in a long questionnaire in order that their review is as accurate as possible. Monsieur Pamplemousse has been reviewing hotels and restaurants for years.
Michael Bond is well-known as the author of the Paddington Bear books for children, but I’m told he really wanted to be remembered for his 17 books about Monsieur Pamplemousse. What a pity. I had a real struggle reading this Monsieur Pamplemousse adventure. Yes, we know it’s set in France and most of the characters are French. That’s no reason to lard the text with quite so many words in French, and in italics. For example, nobody rides a bike, they ride a bicyclette. Because they’re French. It really grates.
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| Thanks to Monsoon Thunder Bay |
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