A placeholder & links covering the whole journey can be found through the link here and below:
Left Beirut early – drove out through East Beirut – past Byblos and then up into mountains – superb vistas to photograph – to Cedars [see headline photo].
Mist was lifting as we drove up – stayed up long enough for our photos and promptly descended again to pelt down [on us].
Stopped at Hotel Chbat in Bcharre for labne sandwich – then back down to Byblos.
Toured castle which includes Phoenician and Roman ruins as well as Crusader and Ottoman periods.
Rested late afternoon and had dinner at restaurant Pepe Abed’s [aka Chez Pepe] and tried chanchalle? (cheese & tomato) and fresh fish.
Le patron mange ici (mash potato and stewed apple).
In 1997 we did really meet Pépé himself and he really did eat while we were eating there and he really was just eating soft food rather than tucking in to the hearty food we were eating.
People continue (into the 2020s) to claim in their on-line reviews to meet Pépé Abed at his restaurant or at his fishing club, but as he was old as the hills when we met him in 1997 and he died in 2006, my guess is that they now see his son or a “Tribute Pépé”.
All of the Lebanon photos in our album can be seen here and below:
