We have the perfect breakfast: great croissants from the lady’s bakery and bread “traditional” from the man’s bakery. I worked up the nerve to ask him what bread he had given me the last time and he remembered. Today, Thursday, is the big market day in the square. They have a horse butcher! They must have a lot of older people here; they are the ones who usually prefer horse meat. It is not cheap! There are 2 other meat purveyors and all their meat looks great. There is a cheese guy and produce, of course. There is a guy with paella and roast chicken.
We found a dog-sitter! Catherine called the vet hospital to ask Christina if she knew anyone. Christina was on vacation but another lady looked through a list they had and found Marie who was listed as a dog walker. Cat called her and because of recent unfortunate circumstances (her mother just died) she needed both a distraction and some extra money since she will solely be responsible for the rent. It was an incredible confluence of events.
So with Marie in place we set out for a day of wine tasting and a great lunch. Our first stop is Chartreuse de Mougeres in the small village of Caux just outside of Pezenas. The winery is on a large property which also houses a convent for the Sisters of Bethlehem and a church, Our Lady of Mercy, built in 1645. The current inhabitants of the convent have the habits of nuns centuries before–and that describes both their clothing and their habits of daily life. The church is very nearly all white except for the stained glass windows and actually appears very modern even though it’s hundreds of years old. Here are some recordings of the nuns in church: http://english.bethleem.org/publications/voixdunprofondsilence.
After a brief tour of the church we go across the small square to taste wine. We enjoy a couple of the white wines and the rose but frankly the three reds we tasted were undrinkable. We wonder how on earth they could sell such bad red wine. We buy 3 bottles of a white wine made from a Spanish grape, Maccabeo, and 3 of the rose. The dry Muscat wine was also quite nice; the Hartleys bought a couple of bottles of that.
Then we were off to a winery that Cat and Stephen say has grown immensely over the past few years and is keen to market to wine-loving countries around the world. The winery is Domaines Paul Mas. You may have heard of at least one of their labels: Arrogant Frog(!). But we also know their Domaines Astruc (AV) wines from our local wine shop. These wines are our go-to daily wines that we buy from our local wine purveyor, La Costa Wine Shop. The domaine has an incredible mixture of varietal wines and price-points. Matilde, who “womans” the retail shop, is beautiful, friendly and very knowledgeable; we are happy to have her help us. You give her a brief idea of what you like or what you’re looking for and she has the answer. The prices are incredibly reasonable. We buy a LITTLE bit of wine (my nose has grown as I lie to you).
But the fun doesn’t stop there. We have a fantastic lunch at the winery’s restaurant. There is a beautiful view from our table looking over the vineyards, the valley and the surrounding hills. Our apéritif is a glass of Arrogant Frog wine. We peruse the chalkboard menu. For our first course, Cat, Stephen and I have a beautifully served swordfish plate served on a piece of black slate. Stephen says this place is so poor they must serve their food on roof tiles. (I wish I could remember all his witticisms!) There are two preparations served: a small piece of grilled swordfish with a spread of wasabi and olives plus a small glass full of swordfish pieces with some other seasoning. A pretty and delicious little lettuce salad is in the middle of the plate. Howard’s first course is a huge mound of thinly shaved local smoked ham (like prosciutto) and a nice lettuce salad.
For our main course we all have duck breast, perfectly cooked, with a mélange of mushrooms, peas, and fava beans and a small lettuce salad. With our lunch we enjoyed a red wine that Matilde had highly recommended and it was perfect. (We bought 6 bottles.)
For dessert Cat has several sweets based on coffee: coffee panne cota, crème puff with coffee flavored whipped cream, a coffee flavored mouse, and I think a few more sweets. The other three of us have pineapple served several ways: grilled, in a “gazpacho” with a straw, on a pastry round topped with pineapple sorbet. The joke about this dessert is this: pineapple in French is “ananas.” So it looks like “bananas.” We keep saying “But where are the bananas?” I think it was the wine talking but we thought it funny. Coffee to sober us up except Cat; she’s had enough coffee as dessert.
The cost per couple is 75€. That is incredible for what we got including a fabulous bottle of wine.
One more stop at a winery. The proprietress can’t believe that we brought 3 dogs from the US. Then she can’t believe that 2 of them have 3 legs. (We get that a lot.) She was very busy so we just buy her everyday wine–like 2 Buck Chuck only slightly more expensive. Stephen knows this winery and he takes us on a tour of the cave. It is pretty incredible with HUGE, OLD
casks made from both cement and wood. Very interesting and impressive.
We return home to Marie and our doggies and she says they did not care that we left them. She says if we leave them with her for a week, they will have happily forgotten us. We are delighted that she loves them as much as we do; I’m sure they got more attention then we give them. She is happy to carry Lucky up and down the stairs to the garden; he just can’t negotiate those stairs and we have a lot of them. She is available whenever we need her. Catherine negotiated a very fair price for her services. So our dog worries are over; on with the fun!
But it is a bit of an exertion to bring 54 bottles of wine up our stairs! Maybe we worked off a bit of our fantastic lunch. It turns out I left my credit card at the Domaines Paul Mas wine cellar. Stephen thinks it was intentional so we can have another fine lunch.
I am disconcerted that I have left my credit card. I lost a credit card the day we got discombobulated at the toll station. We have driven in France many, many times and this is the first time that there has not been a “manned” (or “womanned”) toll station on the Autoroute. We got a European-type credit card with a chip before we left; these credit cards must be used at all unattended pay stations (for gas, to buy train tickets, and at the toll stations). You need a PIN to use the CC. We thought we were so smart to bring this type of CC with us! But my “European” CC does not work at the toll booth! So we must find actual money to pay the toll and it must be in 20€ bills or less or coins. Most of our money is in 50€ bills so it is a panicked rush to find money to pay the toll. Several credit cards, bills and coins were flying all over the place as we searched for something to pay the toll that first time. (The cars are backing up behind us!) Since that day I have not been able to find that credit card. We have looked everywhere. I have a (false) sense of security because those CC require a PIN, right? NO! Apparently for stupid tourists the PIN can be overridden. And we’ve discovered a few times that we are not even required to sign the receipt. So I have been logging on to our CC website and checking activity on a regular basis. No problem so far… BTW, Catherine looked at the toll road website and NO American CC can be used, chip or not. So much for meticulous planning.