A very warm welcome to our guest blogger Michelle Levesley, a British mum-of-three & English teacher living in France. In her first post for Geneva Family Diaries she shares a rave review about Gastro-Mômes, a delicious & child-friendly café-cum-takeaway-service in Douvaine, equipped with a superb play-area. Thank you Michelle!
My Wednesdays as an expat mum living in France have always involved me being a taxi service for Number One to and from dance or swimming classes. As I drive about I yearn for a nice, child-friendly space to to entertain Numbers Two & Three. Back in London, I lament, this would not be a problem. I also have the problem of then returning home and preparing something decent for them all to eat before we all run out of the door again.
You can imagine my delight when I stumbled upon Gastro-Mômes in Douvaine. This is a revolutionary concept for this side of the lake. The owner, Elisabeth Lechine, has a background in restaurant management and has also worked alongside famous chefs at The Mandarin Oriental in Geneva. Cooking and introducing people to new flavours is her passion. Her idea: to run a café with a little play area for children that can also be rented for functions AND to offer a traiteur service for children.
Last Wednesday, I crashed through the door with Two and Three, and was able to relax while the children had a ball playing on the cars & with the little kitchen, jumping about, all contained in a pretty, fenced in area. I got to sip a delicious cappucino , safe in the knowledge that we were not annoying anyone, nobody risked breaking anything and hey, we were WELCOME here! The joy!
We also order take-away meals here, which we pick up on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at eleven thirty. All we have to do back home is put them in the microwave for a few seconds and everyone has a tasty and balanced meal. I cannot believe my luck, I wish the place had been open when I was pregnant and cooking made me sick, or when I was without a kitchen for two weeks…or even when I struggled balancing everything after Number Three came along.
Everyone I know in the area who has visited Gastro-Mômes has been thrilled that we finally have such a lovely, friendly and most of all, child-friendly place to go to. It has only been open a few weeks and the website is not yet up and running but Elisabeth takes orders by phone or email.
Centre Commercial Domino
74140 Douvaine
Open Tuesday to Saturday: 9am-12am & 2pm-7pm.
Closed on Sundays & Mondays.
Tel. +33 (0)456810550
contact@gastro-mômes.fr
Gastro-Mômes is also available for functions and birthday parties.
Michelle Levesley has been living in France for seven years. She and her husband arrived from London as a newlywed couple and now have three children aged between five and a half and seventeen months. As Michelle says: “They make my life so wonderful but we cause chaos everywhere we go really. If nothing else, we keep the locals amused. We seem to be on a constant mission to find new things to do over this side of the lake. I used to teach English but I am on a break while I work out how to make a job and a family fit together nicely. I think an au pair, regular spa days and wine would help.”
