Tuesday Oct 9th, Finally a Simple Day

In our renewed attempt at a simple day, we finally (mostly) succeeded.  We woke up late.  Then sat outside to read.  Just outside the house’s kitchen is an overhang, nearly 200 square feet.  It faces out to the pool, and beyond a somewhat obstructed view of rolling hills and vines.  Beyond it are the laundry room, a bathroom, and a 100 square foot area that’s covered and looks like our landlord might occasionally use it when she paints.  We’ve spent many many many (!) hours in this ‘gazebo’, eating meals at the table and reading in the chairs.  And when it’s particularly pleasant out, and not too sunny, we take a couple of the chairs out from under it and over to the pool (15 feet away) so that we can orient our view to a totally unobstructed look at vines and even more rolling hills.

So, in the spirit of us taking a lazy day, we’re sitting in the gazebo drinking morning coffee at 9:20am.  Our landlord comes over to tell us that the cleaning lady is coming by at 10.  So, a scramble (not simple life just for the moment) to shower and change and straighten up.  The cleaning lady is a 20-something Scottish girl, Katie, from the “Borders area” which is below Edinburgh.

We decide to head out for a lunch – we’ve had very few meals out so far on the trip.  Various sources are searched, most importantly Tripadvisor.  We’re a bit “in search of”, looking for a local restaurant, a good value, in an open area (rather than in town).  Our first choice is closed on Tuesdays, something that I ascertain after struggling in French with whoever answered the phone.  Our second choice – no problem!  L'Ispiens Port.  It’s about 15 minutes away, on the outskirts of Gaillac.  We get there and the parking lot is packed.  Perhaps 50 cars and trucks.  And, having read various articles that suggest that in France your best bet for a rural restaurant is one frequented by truck drivers, I’m delighted to see a half dozen trucks.  It turns out to be a great(!) value restaurant.  For 10E you get an entrée (starter) and a main course, or a main and a dessert.  But for 12E you get an entrée, a main, dessert, and a quarter liter of wine!  Guess which direction we went.  So, lunch was an Italian tart (no idea what made it Italian), steak frites, a chocolate dessert, and given that we’d both ordered the true value meal, more wine than we were able to drink.  (We talk about going back for the enticingly juicy burgers but France offers too many choices and we never make it...)

From there, it was a short drive to Gaillac and the Maison du Vin.  Recall we’d been here last week, and that they sample up to 20 of the local wines (different ones each week).  As with last week, we were the only ones there and the woman pouring the wine remembered us.  It’s free, and she offered us both glasses, but as we always do when wine tasting, we shared one (not a romantic thing but a practical/alcohol thing).  Found one bottle of red to buy, decided we like oaked reds (aged in 'chene') the best, and headed home for our quiet evening and remnants of a simple day…