Tails From Provence

Thank Friday it’s Lunchtime – Auberge Pierry, Reillanne

We have pledged to visit a different hostelry in the locale every Friday for the next year and bring to you, our passionately interested readers, our rating and assessment of each and every one.

Yes. It’s a restaurant review.

We have two rules :

1. If there is a Plat du Jour (special of the day) one of us must order it

2. Rule one does not apply if the Plat du Jour is Andouillette.

(Andouillette is basically intestines wrapped up in a sausage skin. I’ve never eaten it, but the LSH has resolutely tried it a couple of times, trying to figure out what the French see in it. The last time, I sat in between the LSH and the ED as they both sampled andouillette in the Café du Cours in Reillanne. The waiter had extolled its virtues, and convinced them that it was “very, very special.” I might as well have been sitting in a cowhouse – that’s what it smelt like. Both of them tried hard to like it, that day, and both agreed it was in a lovely sauce, but it still ..um.. tasted like it smelled.)

So, no, thank you France, you make great food, but we’re steering clear of the andouillette from now on.

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Auberge Pierry is very close to our home base. It’s located right on the N100, so it’s very handy for anyone who’s travelling from Avignon to Forcalquier, say. We had heard that it had a solid lunch trade, so we were expecting quite a few other diners and were a bit disappointed to find that there was only one other table occupied the day we visited.

I opted for the €14.50 Menu du Midi (lunch time special) : Salade de Crudites, Rôti de Porcelet and a choice of desserts. The LSH went for the Menu Provençal, at €18.50, which gave a few more options, but he chose Tartare de Chèvre, Lapin à la Provençale and the same dessert options.

We’ve eaten in Auberge Pierry before, when it was under different management, and felt that while the food was good, the whole place had a very bare feel. The new management have tried to address this, with curtains hung over doorways, a grey decor throughout, a cosy fire blazing away on one side of the room and a couch, coffe table and a couple of arm-chairs beside the fire. It needs a little more colour, in my opinion, the grey is a bit bland, but it does feel less cathedral-like.

The starters arrived quickly, along with a small basket of bread. The Tartare de Chèvre was basically a wodge of goats cheese, nicely presented on a bed of salad, garnished with a couple of pieces of crispy pancetta.

Tartare de Chèvre

The Salade of Crudites was a fairly similar salad, with a few hard-boiled eggs and some grated carrot added. Both came with a nice, light dressing, and both were excellent. The endive (chicory) arranged around the outside of the plates was particularly nice – it’s in season at the moment and had none of the bitterness it can have when it starts to get old.

Salade de Crudites

My Rôti de Porcelet (roast piglet!) came in a red wine sauce and was served with Tagliatelle. I seem to be destined to eat pasta at our lunches! In this case, there was less pasta on the plate than last week, which suited me fine but might not suit a big MAN appetite quite so well! This was really tasty, possibly a little on the salty side, but that’s a personal taste thing, I suppose.

Rôti de Porcelet

The Lapin Provençal (Provençal style Rabbit) was a bit lighter than my main course and came with jumbo potato wedges. This was also delicious, in fact it was possibly a little more delicious than the Porcelet.
Hmm, I think the LSH chose the better starter AND main course!

Lapin Provençale

Finally, dessert. The LSH ordered Tuile à Lavande, served with ice-cream. The Tuile is the biscuity thing. It was beautifully presented, we both agreed it looked like a sail-boat with its spinnaker up, cruising along! It tasted as good as it looked, too, and the ice-cream was yummy too – a nice grown-up kind of flavour (but neither of us can remember what it actually was, oops).

Tuiles à Lavande

I went for a light dessert (I’m still trying to shake off a few more kgs) of Faisselle with honey. Faisselle is a fresh cheese – I think it’s best described as being half-way between yoghurt and cream cheese, it’s really light to eat, with a yoghurty tang to it. They were very different desserts, both were excellent, but I think I preferred mine, it was just a bit lighter.

Faisselle & Coffee

Two coffees and a glass of white wine each brought the total bill up to €40. I have to say that the Menu du Midi is excellent value. Although we didn’t get as much food as we did at the Buffet de la Gare, what we were served was much better quality – top class food at a bargain price, if you stick to the set meal.

Star Rating (out of 5) :

Service : ✮✮✮✮✮

Food : ✮✮✮✮✮

Value : ✮✮✮✮

Ambiance : ✮✮✮✮ Unfortunately with only one other table occupied, it felt a little bare. It must be lovely in the summer, though, there is a very large terrace with plenty of shade where one can relax out of the sun.

Christmas Plans

Christmas is all about family time, to me. The best Christmas we ever had was in 2001, when my whole family plus a few extras came together at my house. We had literally just completed building an extension. Two weeks before Christmas, we still had nothing in the kitchen, not even a level concrete floor, but it all worked out in time for the big day, apart from the floor – the bare concrete was covered with various bits of carpets to try to conceal it and warm the place up. Fifteen of us sat down to Christmas dinner that day, and I think it was one we’ll all remember.

Last Christmas, all of my immediate family once again joined us for the festivities, with my sister-in-law joining us the next day. Of course, things were complicated this time by the fact that the LSH and I were abandoning our guests on the 27th, but we had a good time nonetheless. So good, in fact, that we agreed it was our turn to travel for Christmas next time, and that we’d all go to California – me, the LSH, the daughters & Granny.

We booked our flights way back in June. At that stage, we thought we’d be starting our Year in Provençe in January, so we intended to arrive back in Ireland on the 31st and travel to France via the UK a couple of days later. Plans changed, we’re already in Provençe, so we’ve arranged to fly from Nice to Dublin on the 14th to meet up with the rest of the gang (and there’s the small detail of a family wedding to attend on the 15th, too!) and continue from there to San Francisco on the 16th.

I know that the horses will be well looked after at the Farm, but I was worried about kenneling Cinnamon – she is so stressed out by thunderstorms that I was afraid she might give herself a heart attack if she’s in a kennel environment. Some kind English friends have said they’ll look after her (Phew!) so that just leaves Cookie…

Some internet research turned up a place about 15km away, in between Vachères and Banon. I went and checked it out today. The owner seems ok, and is a real “Dog” man – he trains dogs for hunting and his own dogs were very well behaved and well fed. The facilities are pretty minimal, though – Cookie will have a kennel and a small run. There’s no heating in the kennel, so if it’s cold, she will feel it. Dogs are let out for a run in a large exercise area, which is fenced, but not terribly well, although the owner assured me that he’s never had a dog escape in twenty years! All I want is that she will be kept safe, and will still be there when we get back on Dec 31st, so I think we will ask that she is not let out into the exercise area, and we’ll leave plenty of warm bedding with her.

We can’t do much else, with her “cat” and “escaping” issues it is very difficult to ask friends to look after her, but I know I will be in tears when we leave her there in two weeks time.

Yes, two weeks time. Maybe it’s time to start Christmas shopping!

Here’s a video I’d forgotten about to start setting the Christmas mood – this is Roxy at our house last Christmas, discovering the singing penguins :

By the way, Roxy has just graduated from her training and is now an Assistance Dog with a family in Co Meath who have a son with Autism. I could not be happier – it just seems so right that she has ended up as an Assistance Dog!

Sunday Stills – Animals in Black and White

This was a great challenge, it made me play with my camera and learn more about it! I didn’t even know I had a Monochrome setting on my camera, let alone two settings, one for sepia tones and one for high-contrast black and white.

So here’s a sepia toned one, this is Quieto the horse, with Doug the dog in the background, waiting to go for a trek.

I’m not that crazy about the sepia mode, to be honest, the softness of the images irritates me. However, I do think that this guy all tacked up in his Western gear is the perfect subject for sepia.

After that, I focussed on one of my dogs (pun intended!), Cookie. Cookie is a hyper-terrier – she’s a Jack Russell/Whippet cross. Yes, her ears really are THAT big!

She’s the ultimate wannabe hunter. There are free-range chickens and cats roaming around the area where our house is, and she spends her day sitting at the window, watching them and, presumably, plotting schemes whereby she might manage to catch one, a bit like Wile E. Coyote.

I was trying to get her to pose, and she starting practising her killing skills on my hand.

My, what big teeth, you have, Cookie!

Sunday Stills is a place to hone your photography skills. Each Week Ed issues a new “Challenge” that gives us the opportunity to pick up what ever kind of camera we own and try and meet it. Sometimes we’ll look forward to it because it might seem fun and easy and sometimes we might have to rack our brain to get the appropriate shot to meet the assignment requirements. The purpose is to get out there and use our cameras. Drop over to Sunday Stills and have a look!