L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue - in the steps of Keith Floyd

Troc Café, 38 Impasse de la République

This is l’Isle sur la Sorgue, Vaucluse and it’s Provence at its touristy height. Often unbearably hot in summer but pleasantly warm in the low twenties this afternoon.
L’Isle sur la Sorgue is in an unusual and picturesque location being an island as the river splits but despite flooding, medieval sieges and fires the old town survives with the architecture of a Provençale town that was previously fortified.
The poetry of Frederic Mistral is how the French know of L’Isle sur la Sorgue but I was intrigued to seek out the “restaurant” which Keith Floyd set up there in the Seventies, before his more well-known and longer-lasting venture in Wiveliscombe, Devon. Keith Floyd took cooking on television out of being a public information slot to being fun and entertainment. He paved the way for all the modern television chef personalities. My connection is that I worked the vision for a mini-series he did on location for GMTV in the Nineties.

Keith Floyd’s bistrot in L’Isle sur la Sorgue featured Bistrot Provençale cuisine but was a commercial catastrophe and almost no specific information about it survives. How strange. The tourist office suggested it had been the Café de France in Place de la Liberté, opposite the church, but I don’t find this convincing. That’s a prominent site and much larger than Keith Floyd’s brief mentions suggest. Also it’s unlikely he could have afforded such a large establishment at that stage in his career.

Since my visit my attention has been drawn to the mention in Keith Floyd’s own book “Floyd in the Soup” of 1988, that gives the address of Keith Floyd’s bistrot as Floyds, 15 rue Raspail, l’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.

Chez Stéphane, then as Chez Floyd or Chez Keith, is a possibility as Keith Floyd’s previous restaurants at the time were named Floyd’s, But I’m more persuaded by what is now the Troc Café in Impasse de la République. This is very small, it looks like fewer than a dozen covers indoors because the bar is so far forward. The signage looks as though it was previously Bistrot Brocante and has been renamed. It’s located between two small brocante (bric-a-brac antiques) businesses, Keith Floyd also dealt in antiques. I asked at the counter but they hadn’t heard of any English owner, even long ago.

So my hunch is that Keith Floyd’s bistrot in l’Isle sur la Sorgue was at 38 Impasse de la République, currently Troc Café.

With thanks to Terry for help with the research