We arrived in Saint Etienne on a Sunday afternoon, wrung out from flying across the ocean, 
being up all night, and our body clocks all screwed up (2 p.m. in France is 7 a.m. body time for me). With our stomachs doing jumping jacks looking for food, our host, Dominic Baker took us to a place where I'd eaten before on my previous trip to France, the restaurant at Saint Etienne's Le Musee d'Art Moderne (The Museum of Modern Art).
The museum opened in December of 1987 and features modern works of art from Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Fernand Leger, Joan Miro, Francis Picabia, and Kurt Schwitters. Yeah, I know, I'd only heard of Warhol and Picasso before.
I didn't get to see much of the museum, being that I was starving and would rather look at a work of art on a plate than on a wall at 2 p.m. on a French Sunday afternoon. We had our choice between a seafood dish (I forget what it was) and a steak tartare that just screamed, "Pick me!! Pick me!!"
And I did. And it was great. But, then again, with my body clock at 7:30 a.m., I could have eaten a shit sandwich and thought it was good. I've eaten worse things after an all night drunk. Only I wasn't drunk. Well, other than all the free wine I got on the flight over because my overhead light didn't work and the nice stewardess from American Airlines let me drink wine for free the rest of the flight. But, that had long worn off by the time I was in Saint-Etienne.
But the steak tartare was served on a bed of rice with a light cream sauce over the top. It was a spot-hitter.
We did have some wine, I can't remember what it was, nor did I care - I just wanted food and some good French wine. I was so burnt out by the time I was done with lunch, my "give-a-shit" factor was pretty low. But it was a good time for our first meal in France.
Like I've said before - there aren't a lot of great places to eat in Saint-Etienne, but they are fun. And Le Musee d'Art Moderne is a pretty fun place to eat.
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