Despite Will’s valiant effort to move blogging day to Sunday, I’ve already managed to screw it up, but with just cause. Backtracking to last Sunday, I collected Gerald from Angouleme on Sunday evening. He flew in to Paris from San Fran via Frankfurt, so was a bit tired that evening. We go home around 8:30 and had confit with cheesy potatoes since it’s quick and easy to prepare. We played cards and had a long catch up session which lasted until 3am!
Monday was fairly quiet. Gerald and I went for a walk around the village in the afternoon. We were invited to Barry and Carol’s for drinks that evening and we passed a few hours there. They live on the outskirts of Milhac, if that’s possible, and this was the first time we had been to their place. Barry sent us home with a cd of music, French and English that he would like to play so we’ll need to review that and see. On that note, Françoise has asked Will and I to play at her leaving party at the end of February so we have some practising to do before then.
For dinner, we had chili that I’d made from our xmas turkey with cornbread and various other leftovers. We had a quiet evening in preparation for the big night on the following day. We were all up and showered by 11 the next day and headed into Nontron to hit the Super U and the garden centre. For the party that night, we were asked to bring a dish and a beverage so Gerald and I put our heads together and decided on 8-layer dip, plus bbq chicken pieces. The dip is Mexican inspired so has salsa, guacamole and refried beans as its components. The others are cornbread, grated cheese, creme fraiche, roasted chicken in a tomato chili sauce and topped with green pepper, spring onion and coriander. For the other dish, we made bbq sauce from recipes we found on line and coated the chicken in it while it cooked. I used my new food processor to make most of the sauces and it proved very useful.
We spent a good part of the afternoon cooking and then got ready and left for the party around 7:30. It was held at chez Odile and Ulysse, friends of friends who live in Champs Romain, about 15 minutes drive from here. Also in attendance were Philipe and Françoise, Manu and Mathilde, and Sylvie and her husband (whose name I can’t remember) plus a total of 11 kids, ranging in age from 2 to 17. The hosts moved here last year from up north and don’t know many people so were pleased to meet us. She is an executive and runs a few stores in Perigueux and he is an artist.
We started off with champagne plus nibbles, then moved on to fois gras and sushi, both made by Manu. The latter was an unexpected pleasure for me, especially since it was expertly done. We also had the 8-layer dip, bbq chicken, quiche and “pain surprise”, a tradition with Françoise who supplied us with one last year. It is a round loaf of bread with the centre removed and made into sandwiches of various fillings, hence the “surprise”. Dessert came out sometime after midnight, including an excellent apple tart made by Mathilde. We made a batch of margaritas as our drinks contribution, Philipe brought a bottle of Zubrovka (flavoured vodka) and everyone brought champagne. There was also plenty of smoking, although some of the adults abstained since their teenage kids were present.
We spent a lot of the evening listening and dancing to music with Ulysse as DJ. For the most part, the kids played upstairs but made occasional forays to the main room to try the food. When they did come in, they mostly watched us dance, giving us looks that only teenagers can give when the adults are acting stupidly. They did join the dancing for a bit when the music suited their tastes, but only for a brief while. We continued eating and drinking, pausing briefly at midnight to raise a glass and welcome the new year. There is no traditional song like Auld Lang Syne so it was really just a brief acknowledgement that the calendar had changed. We stayed until 3 am, and then followed Manu and Mathilde through the back roads in order to get home while avoiding the “flic” (police) who normally patrol the towns on NYE.
The three of us had a full head of steam when we arrived home, and stayed up until 7, eating and drinking. Gerald seemed to enjoy himself, despite being the only non-speaking French person at the party. We really enjoyed meeting the hosts and hopefully, will see them again sometime. The next day, we slept in until the mid-afternoon and then spent the day on the sofa, eating comfort food and watching films. For dinner that evening, we had raclette, a Swiss invention involving meat and melted cheese served over potatoes. My new food processor has an attachment to make fries so we bucked convention and made fries instead of boiled potatoes. We had planned to watch the season premier of Sherlock, but we had a few technical difficulties so watched it the next day instead. The last season ended with a cliff-hanger and Will had been waiting patiently these last two years for the resolution.
On Thursday, we were up and out of the house by midday and headed to Angouleme to see the Hobbit 2 in 3D. Although it was playing closer to home, this was the only showing we found in VO (version original). We made Port 80 sandwiches for the road, and then made excellent time getting there. We got tickets, ate our sandwiches and had a little smoke before heading into the nearly empty theatre. The movie was very good, certainly better than the first one, but the 3D didn’t add too much. The film is nearly three hours long so afterwards, we just headed home, arriving back around 6. Gerald made dinner that night which was pork chops in a mushroom gravy, baked mac and cheese and brussel sprouts. It was all very good and fun for me to be sous chef once in a while.
Friday was a quiet day. We had various leftovers for lunch and Will and I did some chores in the afternoon including chopping wood and haircuts. Gerald and I had a quick walk in the late afternoon. That evening, we were invited to Manu and Mathilde’s for homemade pizza. We were joined by Philipe and Françoise and things got started around 8. This meant another French-only evening for Gerald, although with a bit more English spoken than on NYE. Manu had made the dough the previous day, so that it doesn’t rise too much when baking. They have a wood burning stove that is equipped for cooking food and the end result was delicious. The pizzas were topped with various pork products and cheese, with the last one being all cheese in lieu of a cheese course. We stayed until 1 or so and then headed home in order to get some sleep before our trip the next day.
After packing and getting ready in the morning, we had Port 80 sarnies before heading off around 1pm for Bordeaux. We made excellent time, despite the heavy downpours along the way and arrived at the hotel around 3 without getting lost along the way for the first time. It was still raining when we left the hotel for our sight-seeing tour but it let up after 10 minutes or so and was more cooperative for the rest of the night. We did the usual route of the water mirror (sans fountains and people), then passed via the guitar shop before walking the length of St Catherine street. We did a bit of browsing but didn’t buy anything and then ended up at the Bar a Vin for a glass and some charcuterie. We returned to the hotel for a brief rest and to make dinner reservations. The first two places we tried were fully booked and we ended up at a new place which didn’t disappoint.
It is called L’Encoche and has been open since last year. It’s a small place with about 10-12 tables in a room with vaulted ceilings and somewhat stark decor. They only serve a la carte and everything is homemade, including the bread. I had a beef dish to start, very rare with a spicy vinaigrette followed by scallops. Gerald had fois gras, followed by lamb chops and Will had a goats cheese pastry and also had the lamb. The menu was somewhat limited with no pork or foul, so I was pleased to see Will branch out a bit, even if it wasn’t really by choice. We were all too full for dessert but had a lovely bottle of red which we lingered over for a while after the meal. The only other thing worth mentioning is the toilet. It is Japanese (Panasonic) with a cover that opens when you open the door to the bathroom and a heated seat! The instructions were all in Japanese so it’s likely that it does other magic tricks but we were too scared to try.
After dinner, we did a bar crawl consisting of two bars since one of them was closed. We’re not sure if that’s permanent or not, but my guess is that it is since that seems to happening to many gay bars these days. We ended up at Buster Bar, the one run by two English guys from Bristol and had an enjoyable evening there. Like last time, we stayed there after closing time and had a few extra drinks with them and a few others. We staggered home around 3:30 and then were up around 10 the next day, feeling none-too-smart. We had breakfast in town before heading to Angouleme where we left Gerald to get his train to Paris. He’ll be spending four nights there before heading to Amsterdam for a long weekend. It was great to see him and spend time just hanging out. Unlike our last week-long visitor, this one passed without incident and without and frayed nerves.
Will and I arrived home in the afternoon and then spent the day watching films and eating comfort food, including jacket (baked) potatoes for dinner. I guess that makes today our first work day of the year, and we’ve both got a few things on our plate. This post has gone on way too long so I will leave you here and try to get started.