A pleasant villawith good service and excellent food.' Enjoyed again in 2002, this old coaching inn is in a small village in the mountainous Jotunheimen national park. It has been run by the Thorgeir Garmo family since 1897; they added a modern extension in 1992 to a 17th-century wooden building. The decor is traditional (pale wood-panelled walls and ceilings, antiques, open fires). `Our room was a tiny pine box with adjoining bathroom, and balcony overlooking the town, the mountains and the famous Stave church. The chef, Arne Brimi, is acclaimed for his imaginative cooking of local meat, fish and game and mountain herbs, eg, reindeer with cloud-berries, on three menus, ranging from fairly reasonable to very expensive. There is a good Bali villa breakfast buffet: If you want a packed lunch, you are given a plastic bag and invited to stock up for the day. Lom is at the confluence of two rivers on the drier side of the mountain range. A guided walk to the top of Galdhepiggen, Norway's highest mountain, is recommended. `They do a great hot chocolate at the end of a cold expedition

Traveller's tale villain France. In the restaurant the service, though willing enough, was uncoordinated and accident-prone in terms of remembering everything ordered. This developed into ridiculously long waits, and was further exacerbated by the over-elaborated ritual, including the lifting of the domes ceremony. And they indulged in that terrible habit of placing not only the wine, but also the water, out of reach of `courteous self-service'. So what was quite good cooking was rendered less appealing as appetites became dulled by overlong pauses.