Miami has perhaps an exaggerated reputation as an international city; while we certainly have our share of visitors and émigrés from Latin America – indeed, in vast expanses of the county English is greeted with confusion if not scorn – you have to work a bit to overhear, say, Chinese, or Hindi, or… well, Continental French. The Alliance Française helps fill the void, bringing together Frenchmen, Canadians, and lovers of French culture in the hope of keeping the faith.

Le Provençal may as well be a satellite headquarters, because Alliance teachers take their students there, Alliance film groups meet there after the show, and French Ladies Who Lunch count on a quiet, dependable meal.

If you’re sick of quinoa, infusions, and hipster-chic “upscale casual” reinventions of Southern “comfort food”, then let Mme. Guillou, the so-wonderfully-French owner guide you to cuisine that has lasted a hundred years for a reason.