As of Friday, we have lived in France for five years. We decided to go out for lunch to celebrate, and decided on the Charbonnel in Brantome. It is also a hotel, and is one of the more posh places in town. Jenny recommended it to us, and since their basic menu was reasonably priced, it was time to give it a try. We considered going to Perigueux, but decided to stick with Brantome which is more meaningful to us.
Although the menu is three courses, it ended up being closer to eight! We started with a kir royal, which was accompanied with fish pate and toasts, and couple other nibbles. Then it was a pumpkin soup with coconut oil, which gave it a smokey flavour. Next, our entrées arrived: Will had canneloni, which had parma ham as the pasta and a quail egg; I had salmon tartare, plus the steak tartare that came with Will’s dish. Before the mains, we had a cleanser of berry sorbet in a champagne sauce. Our mains were confit de canard for Will, and lightly breaded veal cutlets for me, both served with roasted potatoes and garlic.
Then there was a plate of small desserts, to keep you going while you wait for the dessert you ordered. Will had a hazelnut mousse log, coated in dark chocolate, and I had the sampler platter of custard tart, pistachio eclair, green apple mousse and an “after eight” mint. We ordered coffee and that came with a chocolate truffle. We each a half bottle of wine with our meal, since it was a celebration. We rolled out of there after two hours, very, very full.
During the meal we discussed how we think things are going out here. We’re both still feeling largely positive, and it helps to have a decent year financially. We’re both bored at times, and Will dislikes the winters here, but that’s about it. I can see living in a city again, but the idea still fills me with dread, so that says a lot.
It helps that overall, we’ve had lovely weather nearly the entire year, save July and August. The winter was super mild, and largely sunny. Summer started off strong in June, but turned unsettled in the latter part. Sept and Oct, however, have more than made up for it and it peaked at 24C on Friday. The trend is now broken and we’re in for more seasonal temps, just in time for Anne and Andrew’s visit on Tuesday.
The meal was also a bit subdued, since we received some news that morning. Our friend David, who had a stroke back in March, fell into a coma and wasn’t likely to come out. In fact, he died this morning. From all accounts, he put up a good fight these past months, and you couldn’t ask for a more peaceful way to go. Depending on timings, we hope to go back for the memorial.
In other news, we continue to rehearse for our gig, including hauling our stuff down to Milhac to practice with the others on Wed pm. We will do so this week too, giving our guests a chance to see us perform. Not much to say about work, except that we had a client meeting here on Thurs am. It’s the French family who own a chateau which is also a gite/restaurant, and we discussed taking bookings from their existing site. This will give me a wee bit of work, but otherwise, I’m still waiting. It’s slightly busier for Will but not much.
After returning home Friday, we were so full we could barely move. After a few hours, we managed a low-energy band practice, then vegged out in front of the telly. I awoke with an upset stomach yesterday, which finally felt better in the evening. I managed to mow the back garden but that was about it. We were invited out last night to Alessandro’s, our Italian friend who lives near our old place. He recently returned from Italy with a car-load of food and invited a number of people over to share in the bounty.
Neither of us felt like going, mostly because of David, but also since the idea of a large meal was not so appealing. There were about 12-14 people in all, a mix of French and English, including our friends Hannah and Louie who live over that way. The meal started with thinly sliced hams and bologna, plus marinated artichokes, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes and aubergine, plus fresh mozzarella salad. The main was two types of pasta, one in a cepe cream sauce, the other with bacon. This was followed by Italian cheese, and purchased patisserie, then coffee and a wee digestif. We were home just after midnight.
Today we’ve got the fire going already. There’s not much on the agenda today, and we will prepare for our guests tomorrow. Au revoir.