We Host Lunch -- Sat, Oct 27th

We invite Bill and family to come out to Gaillac for lunch.  We've been to their house a bunch of times on this trip, we're pretty pleased with our place (the house itself, and the location among the vines) and want to show it off.  So, it's scheduled for today.

We've stopped at the Leclerc and picked up pizzas.  No groaning, we've tried them before and they're a)fresh, b)interesting flavors, and c)much better than we can buy in a US grocery store.  Plus, with a 3 year old, a 6 year old, and a 15 year old coming over for lunch, it seems like an option everyone will like.  Maxine insists on making a salad and slicing up a melon to round out the meal.

Pate's are something of a novelty to me.  But, there are a million recipes.  Some involve ingredients I'm not too interested in, like blood, or fat, or well, or rabbit or other animals/animal parts I'm not the least bit curious about.  Thinking it would be relatively "safe" over the course of the trip we buy (I select pate) 3-4 times.  I don't make a single good pick.  Oh well...

For dessert, we stop by our new favorite bakery and pick up a pear tart.  We've also got a bottle of Gaillac sparkling wine.  We're ready for guests!

Lunch works great.  They're late getting here, but it's a good visit. 

It is a cold day though and our planned walk through the vines ends up being a quick trip over to see the neighbor's goats and then inside within 15 minutes.  We think about lighting the fireplace but are reluctant since our earlier experiment with it smoked us out of the first floor for days. 

 

 

Eventually our friends leave and we head out to Albi for dinner at Le Jardin des Quatre Saisons, recommended by our landlord.  It was a great choice – filled with locals, good food, convivial staff.  To cap off the meal, we end with something we never do, an digestif.  Since we're only a couple hours drive from Armagnac, we order glasses of it.  Two, from the same producer, but different years.  The difference that age makes is striking.  And as our waitress pours the first (and older) one, Maxine asks if "all of that!" was only 2 centiliters (what we'd ordered).  She says "tant pis" in a welcoming way and only charges us for the smaller amount.  It was a great end to a very fun day.