Horace

I am reliably told that the best coffee in Bordeaux is to be found in a tiny coffee shop called "Blacklist", just by the Hotel de Ville tram stop.

I went there once. You sit on designer boxes, in a row, using other designer boxes for tables. I never went back.

The guys who ran Blacklist have added another string to their bow : Horace. The café that used to be "Les Mots Bleus" and sold a small range of books as well as decent drinks, snacks and lunches, has been redecorated, rebranded, renamed and relaunched as Horace : café, cuisine, canons.

It's a great place. The coffee is very good. The cakes are awesome. The breakfasts and lunches look very good, too. One day this week for breakfast they advertised brioche perdu accompanied by fresh fruit. It looked wonderful.

And they are accommodating. We are launching an independent international reading group, a small group of folks who'll read a novel a month and meet up to discuss it. I asked in one bookshop/café if we could meet there. "We'll get back to you." They didn't. I went back and asked again. "OK, but we want you to buy the books here, and six people tops because the café is small" (and we need to keep it empty was the silent implication...)

I asked in Horace. "Yes, of course!" And if there are ten people? "Of course! What's the difference between ten people on one table and ten people spread through the café?"

I didn't mention their carrot cake. I doubt if I've had a better carrot cake anywhere.

Oh yes, and it's named after my father.