Our Trip To France – Part 3: The Market And Dinner
Day two of our French vacation had us going to a market in a place called Lamastre which is in the Ardèche department. This market happens every Tuesday and it basically shuts down the town as people come from all over the region to shop there. You basically drive in on the windy, narrow roads to get there. Pay one Euro to park, and then walk into town to do your shopping. Here’s some pictures that illustrate what this market is like:
It was very interesting to walk through this market and see what was on offer. It wasn’t just food that was available for purchase, but you could get clothes, housewares, anything that you would need. Apparently this market runs all year round and is a must go to for those who live here.
Later in the evening, our hosts took us down into a town called Tournon which is also in the Ardèche department to this restaurant:
It specializes in fish and comes highly recommended by a relative of our hosts. I have to admit that it was very good. But since I am not the foodie in this relationship, here’s how my wife described the meal:
Our dinner started with some delightful amuse bouche of gougères and pâté piped onto a puff biscuit and served individual plates of fresh sardines and mousse and some local mini cress.
After we made our selections for the meal we decided to go light on alcohol it was decided a simple local wine from Crozes-Hermitage Blanc, Rhone, France would do the trick.
I had ordered “Saumon d’Ecosse Label Rouge, Sauce Teriyaki Cerise Haricots verts et noix de Pécan” for my entrée and “Velouté froid de petit pois, panna cotta chèvre de Briqu’et Vache served on the side for him. And yes the menu was written only in French which translated to beautiful salmon with teriyaki glaze served with green beans for me and a cold appetizer of locally sourced goat cheese served with pea puree soup for him.
The main or “plat” I had ordered “Le Lapin Bleu Blanc Coeur aux olives kalamon, Tarte pesto et courgette, jus à l’estragon” which the best I can describe as rabbit cooked beautifully with a mini pesto topped with kalamata olives and zucchini tart served with tarragon sauce – for him “Poisson selon arrival, jus de betterava, Caviar d’aubergine fumée, boulgour aux herbes fraîches” which was the fresh white fish (catch of the day) served with beet sauce on top of bulgur cooked with fresh herbs but the smoked eggplant was perfection die for (yes I sampled some of that).
Dessert of the day was a divine mini Paris-Brest with some local wild blueberry cream and wild blueberries.
Driving back to where we were staying in the mountains at night was highly stressful as it was much more difficult to pick out corners and anything that would quite literally send us off the side of a cliff. What didn’t help was the fact that I was initially relying on directions from our hosts. But to take one source of stress off the table, I used Apple Maps to get us back. While Siri’s pronunciation of French words made our hosts laugh, it did direct us to where we needed to be correctly.
Tomorrow is a bit of a down day to start, but a bit a stressful day at the end. Find out why when I post the next part of our trip tomorrow.
This entry was posted on July 27, 2023 at 9:00 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Our Trip To France – Part 3: The Market And Dinner
Day two of our French vacation had us going to a market in a place called Lamastre which is in the Ardèche department. This market happens every Tuesday and it basically shuts down the town as people come from all over the region to shop there. You basically drive in on the windy, narrow roads to get there. Pay one Euro to park, and then walk into town to do your shopping. Here’s some pictures that illustrate what this market is like:
It was very interesting to walk through this market and see what was on offer. It wasn’t just food that was available for purchase, but you could get clothes, housewares, anything that you would need. Apparently this market runs all year round and is a must go to for those who live here.
Later in the evening, our hosts took us down into a town called Tournon which is also in the Ardèche department to this restaurant:
It specializes in fish and comes highly recommended by a relative of our hosts. I have to admit that it was very good. But since I am not the foodie in this relationship, here’s how my wife described the meal:
Our dinner started with some delightful amuse bouche of gougères and pâté piped onto a puff biscuit and served individual plates of fresh sardines and mousse and some local mini cress.
After we made our selections for the meal we decided to go light on alcohol it was decided a simple local wine from Crozes-Hermitage Blanc, Rhone, France would do the trick.
I had ordered “Saumon d’Ecosse Label Rouge, Sauce Teriyaki Cerise Haricots verts et noix de Pécan” for my entrée and “Velouté froid de petit pois, panna cotta chèvre de Briqu’et Vache served on the side for him. And yes the menu was written only in French which translated to beautiful salmon with teriyaki glaze served with green beans for me and a cold appetizer of locally sourced goat cheese served with pea puree soup for him.
The main or “plat” I had ordered “Le Lapin Bleu Blanc Coeur aux olives kalamon, Tarte pesto et courgette, jus à l’estragon” which the best I can describe as rabbit cooked beautifully with a mini pesto topped with kalamata olives and zucchini tart served with tarragon sauce – for him “Poisson selon arrival, jus de betterava, Caviar d’aubergine fumée, boulgour aux herbes fraîches” which was the fresh white fish (catch of the day) served with beet sauce on top of bulgur cooked with fresh herbs but the smoked eggplant was perfection die for (yes I sampled some of that).
Dessert of the day was a divine mini Paris-Brest with some local wild blueberry cream and wild blueberries.
Driving back to where we were staying in the mountains at night was highly stressful as it was much more difficult to pick out corners and anything that would quite literally send us off the side of a cliff. What didn’t help was the fact that I was initially relying on directions from our hosts. But to take one source of stress off the table, I used Apple Maps to get us back. While Siri’s pronunciation of French words made our hosts laugh, it did direct us to where we needed to be correctly.
Tomorrow is a bit of a down day to start, but a bit a stressful day at the end. Find out why when I post the next part of our trip tomorrow.
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This entry was posted on July 27, 2023 at 9:00 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.