Le Havre: Jean-Luc Tartarin

Just across the Seine estuary from the travelers’ favorite trio of Deauville, Trouville and Honfleur, native Norman chef Jean-Luc Tartarin has put the fascinating but still mostly under-the-radar city of Le Havre on the map as a mandatory gourmet halt during any visit to Normandy. His handsome eponymous restaurant is found on the city’s curiously elegant Avenue Foch, the centerpiece of the post-World War II rebuilding of the devastated city by architect Auguste Perret. It’s well worth the journey there to sample such dishes as lobster and Utah Beach oysters in seaweed-ginger bouillon, or pigeon roasted in cocoa beans with a jus enriched with ewe’s milk cheese and chocolate.

Jean-Luc Tartarin 73 ave Foch, Le Havre. 02.35.45.46.20. Menus €29 (lunch), €44–€89 (dinner); à la carte €65. Prices are approximate, per person without wine.  website

Originally published in the March 2011 issue of France Today