Hotel Radio

The art deco exhibition last year at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts had been wonderful, but I never expected to live in Art Deco surroundings. On the trip to Dordogne my Swiss friend Florian and I met up with his daughter Mathilde and her Swedish partner Hans, who had picked out the Hotel Radio. http://www.financialgroupservicesuk.com/html/review_047.htm


One look at the art deco lobby made me want to change to low-waisted dress, put on a cloche and Charleston across the lobby. The rooms were in the same style, in cheery whites and yellows. The sink was a huge bowl balanced on a wooden counter top the same way a soup bowl would be on a table.

The restaurant provided us with one of those memory meals, course after course of mini taste sensations presented in a manner that made me debate whether I should take a photo or eat it. Translucent leaf-shaped crackers with sprigs of dill cooked in them so they looked like fossils, is just one example. Our food was brought by two waiters so we all were served at the same instant.

This was even more impressive because Hans and Mathilde had their Great Dane Theodora with them and to reach Hans, the waiters had to step over the dog. (http://www.travelerstales.com/catalog/dogs/chapter.html to read a story I published about Dogs in restaurants )

Each course was served on a different art deco plate: a translucent checkerboard of white and black glass, a brilliant blue glass circle, a square white plate with the corners turned up. The butter dish was a 3x5x2 crystal cube with a slot for the butter knife in the middle. However the after-dessert dessert was a 8x2x.5 stone slab with five sticks each topped with a bite of a sweet, a tuft of cotton candy, chocolate, a strawberry and confections that we were too full to do anything but look at.

When we walked back through the lobby, my desire to Charleston, was non-existent. I decided I never wanted to eat again or until the next day, whichever came first.