France sojourn 2.

Our 2^nd day at the Hotel and Restaurant called Le Clos de Vouge at the duck pond mill was a Sunday and time for a tasting of the wines.  We remembered how we loved our restaurant  so much on our previous visit  for the lunch in 2007. We had a morning drama then where John went to fetch the hire car in Dijon and could not find his way back via the narrow one way streets and we subsequently missed our breakfast. So when we staggered into the restaurant in Vougot (half hour out of Dijon on the cotes D’Or route in Burgundy and found ourselves eating Frogs Legs for John and Coq au Vin for Jan by the duck mill pond we swore we would return.

This Sunday after a sumptuous breakie of croissants and ham and cheese and cake and yoghurt (phew)… we set off at 10 am for a wine tasting and struck it lucky at Paul Leclerc  where we had 3tastings of  Premier Crus  ( the best almost) and then to the blends of tasting to top it off. The sassy vintners wife could sell and sell and was overgenerous in her servings so we bought some and went home to sleep it off.

We could not have lunch at the duck mill because it was Mother’s Day and full up (“complete”) so we drove to Nuit Saint George and had a lunch at the cafe on the corner where all the action was – a cycle race and all the entourage sped past while we waited for our So yummy terrine and cheese.

Then we bravely faced up at 7.30pm at the duck mill resturant for the Sunday dinner – oh my goodness. They have a Menu option in France which is usually entree, main and dessert and so well priced that you have it even when you are not hungry as.  In this case we had it all – yabbie lookalikes on aubergine diced mound and lovely sauce, escargot and mushroomy cream cassoulet, pork and amazing vegetables and then the cheese trolley (you could actually have as much as you wanted of about 10 cheeses). We embarrassed ourselves by thinking that we were sharing the plate that John ordered. Oh no – Madame was entitled to her own plate too. I demurred gracefully and we shared.

Then the Dessert was served – delicate strawberries coveerd in a crème brulee still slightly warm and sprinkled with cinnamon and crystalised sugar.
What a struggle to get up the stair to welcome sleep to take away the pain of the fullness!
(How, I wonder, are French women  NOT fat?  Must read the book…)

Now to Monday and a determination to go slow on food and speed up on driving south to our next goal – the charming town of Uzes near Nimes. We lasted till 2pm on a quick roadside stop at 10am where we shared a roll of ham and cheese and then found our only option to be yet another menu of 3 courses – but so refreshing entree of asparagus, tomato and salad, and then to our surprise – a dish of Beef Bourgogne (hadn’t we left Burgunday 5 hours ago???) but it was terrific and topped off wth apple tart and cafe.

Well there goes dinner again…?

 After some tense moments going around and around the mediaeval village of Uzes and not knowing how to contact our manager of our apartment, we were very relieved to finally find ourselves in a stunning park view apartment – hey is this France or Cairns?- so much space!

We are here for a week and relieved to empty our suitcases into drawers. Johnny deserves a medal for driving the medieval streets in our clumsy little but heavy Renault!

A final spurt in the car to a supermarket to buy essentials for a light supper of bread and cheese and ham and bottle of red for 99cents –true- and coffee for the same! Then we fell into bed to dream good dreams of more food and wine.