An early start – we all needed an alarm clock to get up and ready for Anne-Cecile who was picking us up at 10 to spend the day with her family in a small village in the Loue Valley. About 40 km’s from here.
We stopped along the way and had a look at a village that is built along the river edge with the houses backyards and balconies overhanging the river. Very beautiful and the water was clear and clean..JPG)
When we arrived we met her son and his friend (17 year olds!) and her husband returned home from hunting in the hills. He goes hunting for roe deer, boars, woodcock, pheasants and other things. They have a lovely English pointer and a small playful black kitten that Seph and Hermione were enraptured with.
Anne-Cecile teaches English at the Lycee and has spent a year living in Dunedin. Salvadore was born in Italy but moved to France when he was 10. He works in the ‘stamping’ industry. Where they design and stamp microchips etc into car parts, visa cards and lots of other things.
We started with an aperitif – white wine accompanied by pistachios, corn chips and a cheese type dip, carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes and chopped up fennel.
After this we went to the formal dinner table – entrée was duck liver pate and a pork/venison pate with a lettuce and cherry tomato salad. More wine was drunk with this course – red!
After long discussions and more vino the main plate arrived. Pasta with wild boar – very tasty.
More conversation and wine –
Cheese platter – about 5 different varieties!
More wine…. The glass was never empty and the bottles seemed endless.
Dessert – Pavlova! This was a huge success as Anne-Cecile and Salvadore both loved Pavlova when they were in Dunedin. Florian (their son) and Kevin (his friend) also adored it.
The time was now 5:30! Lunch had just finished.
Coffee / More wine followed as Kevin’s parents arrived to collect him. It was really nice to meet this couple and have conversation with them too.
To accompany the coffee we had a special gateaux that is for the ‘epiphanie’ (epiphany) there is a small treasure hidden somewhere inside the cake. Whoever gets this treasure gets to wear the crown and is ‘le roi’! (The King)
Time had moved on - 7:00pm and then Anne-Cecile started tea! I couldn’t believe it - she made a quiche Lorraine and pizza. While this was being made – Salvadore kept appearing with more wine. We started again with white wine as it was preceding dinner.
Dinner was on the table at 9:00 and red wine was the accompaniment - before we knew it it was 10:30 and we started to get ready for home! We were stuffed full!
The girls were so tired but we finally returned to our wee flat at 11:15!
It just amazed me as the food was ongoing all day and the conversation and atmosphere was convivial. They are a fantastic couple and we had an amazing day and experience. I hope we have a lot more to do with them while we are here.
We had been drinking wine for nearly 12 hours and Nev and I both were feeling it – I was slightly worried about the morning and my 8:00 class. We both knew it would be a mission to get the girls up tomorrow as well!
We stopped along the way and had a look at a village that is built along the river edge with the houses backyards and balconies overhanging the river. Very beautiful and the water was clear and clean.
.JPG)
When we arrived we met her son and his friend (17 year olds!) and her husband returned home from hunting in the hills. He goes hunting for roe deer, boars, woodcock, pheasants and other things. They have a lovely English pointer and a small playful black kitten that Seph and Hermione were enraptured with.
Anne-Cecile teaches English at the Lycee and has spent a year living in Dunedin. Salvadore was born in Italy but moved to France when he was 10. He works in the ‘stamping’ industry. Where they design and stamp microchips etc into car parts, visa cards and lots of other things.
We started with an aperitif – white wine accompanied by pistachios, corn chips and a cheese type dip, carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes and chopped up fennel.
After this we went to the formal dinner table – entrée was duck liver pate and a pork/venison pate with a lettuce and cherry tomato salad. More wine was drunk with this course – red!
After long discussions and more vino the main plate arrived. Pasta with wild boar – very tasty.
More conversation and wine –
Cheese platter – about 5 different varieties!
More wine…. The glass was never empty and the bottles seemed endless.
Dessert – Pavlova! This was a huge success as Anne-Cecile and Salvadore both loved Pavlova when they were in Dunedin. Florian (their son) and Kevin (his friend) also adored it.
The time was now 5:30! Lunch had just finished.
Coffee / More wine followed as Kevin’s parents arrived to collect him. It was really nice to meet this couple and have conversation with them too.
To accompany the coffee we had a special gateaux that is for the ‘epiphanie’ (epiphany) there is a small treasure hidden somewhere inside the cake. Whoever gets this treasure gets to wear the crown and is ‘le roi’! (The King)
Time had moved on - 7:00pm and then Anne-Cecile started tea! I couldn’t believe it - she made a quiche Lorraine and pizza. While this was being made – Salvadore kept appearing with more wine. We started again with white wine as it was preceding dinner.
Dinner was on the table at 9:00 and red wine was the accompaniment - before we knew it it was 10:30 and we started to get ready for home! We were stuffed full!
The girls were so tired but we finally returned to our wee flat at 11:15!
It just amazed me as the food was ongoing all day and the conversation and atmosphere was convivial. They are a fantastic couple and we had an amazing day and experience. I hope we have a lot more to do with them while we are here.
We had been drinking wine for nearly 12 hours and Nev and I both were feeling it – I was slightly worried about the morning and my 8:00 class. We both knew it would be a mission to get the girls up tomorrow as well!
I can't believe I took no photos - must have been impaired slightly! The French really know how to entertain!
1 comment:
You seem to be meeting lots of people and getting out and about now Tiffany - that's great. Having the girls and meeting families though them must make it a bit easier perhaps? I haven't been asked out so much lately - I think it's a pain for people to have to come and get me. I'm tired too! I'd forgotten that it can be quite tiring doing uni full time as well as the lycee. But I will cope!
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