Fodor's Expert Review La Couronne

Behind a half-timber facade filled with geraniums, the "oldest inn in France," dating from 1345, is crammed with stained leaded glass, sculpted wood beams, marble Norman chimneys, leather-upholstered chairs, and damask curtains. Of its many famous guests over the centuries, perhaps the most celebrated here is Julia Child, who ate her first meal in France—"the most exciting meal of my life"—here. A prix-fixe menu recreates that meal with a green salad, a half-dozen oysters on the half-shell, and sole meunière. Add "a whole bottle of Pouilly-Fumé," as Child did, for maximum authenticity.