World > Europe > France > Languedoc-Roussillon and the Pyrenees

Etche-Ona

Good House, in Euskara, the Basque language, is owned by Jean-Claude Ibargaray. The food is clean but sophisticated: a zingy gazpacho laced with dollops of basil sorbet; foie gras topped with carrot-size white asparagus and roasted a deep, caramelized brown; a tart of Ossau-Iraty cheese accompanied by tomato salad and huge grilled prawns. The restaurant sits in the central Place Floquet, between the fronton—a large pink wall where locals play Basque pelota, a lightning-fast (and treacherous) version of handball—and the Rue de la Citadelle, which is lined with rosy sandstone houses, some more than 500 years old.