Why we love France

After what can only be politely termed as a rather hellish first few days in Europe for Mom and Roger, on Sunday we celebrated the arrival of half of their luggage and Mom’s recovery from food poisoning with a four-hour lunch at La Marande, a charming little restaurant just outside Montbellet, which is in between Tournus and Macon (get out your maps, people!)
We began with Kir Royal à la mûre (champagne with blackberry liqueur) and amuse-bouches (mouth entertainment, in this case, an avocado purée soaking in gazpacho dotted with diced cucumber) and went on to shredded crab over guacamole with a few saffron potato slices, accompanied by a local Macon Igé white for mom and me, while Roger opted for a red St Joseph. Mom and I continued on with a fabulous veal loin in a morel mushroom cream sauce (I had to get her a spoon so she could lick up every last drop) while Roger chose duck breast in a sweet pine sauce. He followed up with fromage blanc with cream and sugar, while Mom and I could not resist the temptations of the cheese platter. Gail discovered the delights of Reblochon and Brillat Savarin, but gave her rather masculine Comté to Roger. I selected an assortment of 5 different goat cheeses and a small piece of Reblochon, also one of my favourites. Amazingly, at this point our guts were not exploding, so we gladly dug into the almond-flour cookie flavoured with pistachio, topped with perfectly ripe fresh strawberries and just the right drizzle of dark chocolate, with a side of homemade vanilla ice cream that put Blue Bell to shame. Thankfully, Roger captured the moment here (that's a sugar-crusted rose petal on top of the ice cream).


With our espressos, we finished off with some home-made chocolate, candied apricot and a sugar-coated Marc de Bourgogne bomb, literally an explosion of liqueur wrapped in sugar.
Here we are at our arrival at 12:15, several pounds lighter than our departure at 4:00 pm.








We did not mind that, for the first time since their arrival, the weather was not perfect. We stopped off on the way home to admire the Roman church in Uchizy and the cold front on the horizon.






Remember, you can always click directly on the photos for a close-up and improved view. A description of the aforementioned hellish first few days to follow, once our digestion is complete.