Soap, Food and a Selfie

Today was another quite day, in fact I did not even get up to go to get bread with Patrick today. He said he waited five minutes for me and realized I was a no show. We had gotten back to Baulay around 1:00 am and I slept until I heard the bell ring. Every morning at 8:00 Patrick rings the bell in the bell tower. I thought it was to mark the start of the day. But today I found out two things about the bell:  

1) Nobody else has heard it. I mean, my beloved said what bell? The Girl said what are you talking about? Bell?? Upstate was perplexed.

2) The bell ringing is for Benny. To tell her it is time to rise and shine and that her breakfast is ready.

I am beginning to think that Patrick does not sleep.

We decided to do a little shopping today, so back in Azay le Rideau. We went into a store where I purchased a bag ten years ago that I carry to this day every time I go on a trip. They still had the pattern and so I bought a smaller bag for stuff that will go into the bigger bag. If I keep this up in 150 years I will have every shape and size bag in this pattern.

We went for soap products. Upstate wanted some lavender soap and while you can buy this in the states, it is just not the same. The products here just smell so much better, not as manufactured. The scents are more natural. Anyway, the soap shop was so colorful and full of well, soap. Bars, small rounds, big rounds, they lined the walls and hung from the ceiling. I wish I had taken a picture, but I did not. Not sure what I was not thinking. We picked up a few bars. The woman at the counter apologized to me for her poor English. My feelings about that are, I should be apologizing for my poor French. I am in your country after all.

One would think that after coming here so many times, I would speak French quite a bit better than I do. I think I should work on that.

Then we came back and took naps and prepared for dinner. Dinner tonight was at the Auberge XII in the village. Benny had made the reservations and let them know that we were vegetarians. Nice...

We all get more dressed up than we have been and head over for our 7:30 reservation.

We walk in and the Maitre D asks if we have a reservation. I say yes, under the name Bernard. He says "oh, the vegetarians". I think oh dear, is this a bad sign?

He asks if we want inside or out. We choose out and are seated on a lovely patio. He sits us and asks if we would like wine. We explain that my beloved likes sweet wine and Upstate would like a rose, something local.

He brings back two wines and the sweet one is a winner. The rose seems to be alright as well. A good start.

Then he holds up the menu and says, since you are vegetarians you will not be needing the menu? Are eggs and fish alright, he asks? I say, no we do not need the menu, we will trust whatever you do. Yes to the egg and fish as long as it is a white fish.

And man, did they do.

In addition to the MD you have two nice young men waiting on you. One that reminds of us of Lyle Lovett - his hair. And a second that must be an MD in training - is there a school for this or is it on the job training. Then you have two young ladies that clear and deliver some of the food. We can see the kitchen and the chef thru a glass cutout in the wall. I think there were at least four people plus the chef in there making stuff.

So our first course was four different things in little dishes. One was a cold soup of some kind with a little tiny round ball of cantaloupe in it. One was a tiny tomato that had been peeled and rolled in sesame seeds. One was a little leek salad and one was a carrot sorbet. I can't even tell you which was best because they were all fantastic. Now sadly Upstate needs to be careful with the seed thing due to diverticulitis and The Girl reminded her to be careful, because they had a long plane ride to take in the next couple of days. So good for me because I got her tomato!

The next course was a small dish of a pepper salad. Small, really small.

The third course was the best thing I have ever eaten in my life! A soup of some kind that had paper thin carrots cut into little flower shapes, artichoke hearts and a ravioli filled with some kind of cheese. I think that was what was in it. It does not really matter what is was, I would have gone back into the kitchen and fought my way to the pot and eaten the entire pot of it! It was so good that we used our bread - did I mention that the Lyle Lovett look alike brought over a big basket of bread? Fig bread or sesame bread or just white bread. Yeah, just white bread that had a hard crust and broke open like an egg and was soft and chewy inside. Yeah....bread. We used it to soak all the extra goodness that you could not get with your spoon. I thought I might never brush my teeth again, it was that good.

The next course, fish. Cooked to perfection on a bed of tomatoes and peppers diced up really tiny sitting in an olive sauce. The bread was again used to soak up all that sauce. 

Then came the cheese course. Lyle brought out a wheeled table that had seen better days, the cart had a big flat basket on top filled with at least twenty different kinds of cheese. Stinky cheese, goat, sheep, gooey cheese, African cheese, blue cheese. In other words, Cheese Heaven. We all picked a few and most of them were winners. The African cheese I picked tasted like nuts. It was yummy. Imagine a little bit of cheese on a little bit of fig bread. Oh yeah with some fig compote, my god who thinks of these things cause I want to worship at their feet.

Dessert was a fruit crumble of some type with rhubarb and blueberries, we think. With a pistachio ice cream on top that was a little taste of perfection. It came on little dishes that had these cute little covers.

So we were done and we were stuffed.

But no, we were not done. Lyle put some new plates on our table and said a surprise! A surprise? Can I eat one more thing?  

We see the two young ladies lighting what looks like birthday cakes of some kind. Upstate and I look at each other and think cool, for us? But no, they went right by us to another table. We were joking wouldn't it be funny if they were bringing them to the wrong table? Well they were not. We did not get anything with candles in it. What we got were four little dishes again filled with delightfulness. One was a little tiny blueberry muffin thingy, then a mint and chocolate pudding thing, a cream brûlée that had fall spices in it and my favorite, a strawberry sorbet, that was so cold and smooth.

Then we were done. Really done. So done I thought they were going to have to roll me out of there.  

I'm not going to talk about the guy on the patio that smoked because he really did not spoil it as much as his wife that wore so much perfume it made your eyes water. Or the family at a table behind us that the young girl would not eat anything but the bread. Or the family that came in with at least three children under 4, why would you bring them to a place like this? And I am not going to talk about the table in the corner with the woman who looked angry and was with a very very young man that got our candle lit dessert.  Our about how when I got up to use the ladies room I kicked a table that had glasses and wine one it and was afraid it was going to crash to the floor, but did not. 

We came back to Baulay and went over to Patrick and Benny's to report on our dinner and thank them for arranging it. We chatted a few minutes about how great it was. As we were leaving the artist friends were just arriving home from a long day of house hunting. They think they have been successful and have found a home! Yeah. They showed us a picture and it looks lovely. And yes, I am jealous.