What is the first evening meal that Ian Fleming describes in the James Bond books? The answer is a very small tournedos with sauce Béarnaise, and a single artichoke heart, which James Bond consumes in the restaurant of the Hotel Splendide in Casino Royale
In John Pearson's 'biography' of James Bond, Bond recalls how, before the war, he and an old school friend, 'Burgler' Brinton, had motored from Geneva to Paris. On the way, they stopped at Mâcon for lunch of poularde 'comme chez soi' and Champagne at the Auberge Bressane.
Though a frequent visitor to France, it's not until John Gardner's eleventh 007 novel, Death is Forever that James Bond is given that most archetypal of French dishes: snails in garlic butter.
It's a trivial point to consider, but is the bread that Bond has in Macon in Goldfinger a baguette?
During the summer, I went on an epic road-trip and retraced James Bond's route in pursuit of Goldfinger from Le Touquet on the north coast of France to Geneva in Switzerland, as described in Ian Fleming's 1959 novel.
During their drive through France to Switzerland in the novel of Goldfinger, both James Bond and Auric Goldfinger stop overnight at Orléans. Goldfinger stays at the Arcades, a luxury hotel overlooking the Loire, but if Goldfinger had not stayed at there, Bond supposes that it would have been the Moderne.
We find out in On Her Majesty's Secret Service that James Bond stopped overnight at an auberge on the south bank of the Loire and was offered a 'sleazy provender', which included the fly-walk of the pâté maison.
