Today we got up and ate the rest of our baguette for breakfast. SO good. We plan to buy more today. Stuart checked and the boulangerie closes at 12:30p so we will head out late morning and get that. By the way, the name of the boulangerie is Boulangerie Du Vieux Fiour, which translates to Old Oven Bakery - Cute! We also plan to go by a special wine shop we saw called Villa Burgus to buy a nice bottle of wine for dinner tonight. Paul and Fanny have invited us over for dinner. He said he is doing duck breast on their grill. We have seen him grill several times and we are looking forward to it! Anyway, stopping for the wine first was an interesting stop. The owner didn't speak much English but we are learning to understand a bit more, especially Stuart as he knows more French than I do! It is actually a wine store to purchase wine or you can also drink it there. It is also an art gallery. We understood that Sunday when the Farmer's market is going on a new group of paintings will be hung up and festivities will be happening. I understood that many artists have a small show here and it changes weekly. We definitely plan to return Sunday.
On to the boulangerie and I think we might have made it just in time. There were very few loaves left. We got one traditional loaf like we had the other day and one other baguette, not sure of the exact name of that but we thought to compare.
Now it is lunch time and the little cafe we have been to a few time is right next to us! We both heard the croque monsieur calling our names! It is a two sandwich plate with a little bit of salad on the side. We added a small beer each and that was our lunch today. After our lunch we were going to try to find the place we went to for the Wine Festival when we were on the Taste of Bordeaux river cruise. We did take a nice walk and saw some interesting things, but not the place we were looking for. It is further from the river. More research is in order!
Of course, when we got back we had to taste test our 2 baguettes, we prefer traditional, the inside of the other one had a very different density. It was more like the French bread we buy at home. Anyway, both were good. We had to test the chocolate crossiant of course and just a small taste of the pastry with raisins. We better save our appetite for tonight. After we played a quick game of cards I started prepping the charcuterie board I am taking tonight and Stuart took a quick swim. To me it is not that warm because of the breeze, so I passed on that.
We walked the few feet over to Paul and Fanny's with the charcuterie in hand, along with sparkling wine, and the puzzle we had made for them.
Paul has the duck breast on a different grill that he has been using. It almost looks like a wheelbarrow but it is a grill and he is using wood. He said he likes to slow cook the duck breast like this. He makes his own sauce and put his own honey into the sauce. They have some hives on their property. We will need to take a stroll further along the property line to see those. We sat outside and enjoyed our sparkling wine and the the charcuterie board. They brought out 3 spreads and 2 different baskets of bread. The spreads were hummus, salmon pate, and a pate with row. Fanny's mother is visiting them, she joined us, she is delightful. Fanny translated a bit because her mother, Françoise. She lives in Switzerland. We also met the oldest son, who has a longer name and he said call him Bart! They all stayed and ate a few snacks. Maximillian came as well and Cautilya (still not sure about the spelling of her name) with one of her friends. The kids were in and out but did join us for dinner.
When dinner time came we moved inside, past the kitchen into a lovely room with a huge farm table, for out meal. The entrée consisted of the sliced duck breasts and some potatoes with herbs, cooked in duck fat. The eight of us had a delightful meal. We found out the house used to be a winery, there are still four large tanks at the end of the room forming a wall. They have worked long and hard on this house to make it a home, doing almost all the work themselves.
After the duck came a small cheese plate and bread. This was followed by two desserts. One was a flan from Fanny's favorite pâtisserie and the other was a homemade tart using their plums, which Coletta made. We are stuffed! Then out comes the digestive, a choice of Cognac or Paul's preference Armagnac. We tried the Armagnac and it is strong! This brought us to our next conversation as we want to take a day trip up to Cognac. Paul gave us some advice. I will say after the main entrée Coletta and her friend cleared a good deal of the dishes and I think they washed them and put them away because I do not see anything in the kitchen. The boys didn't return bot Coletta and her friend had dessert with us, then departed. Now it is 10:30p and surely we must be going but they encouraged us to stay a bit more. They would not even let us help clear off the rest of the dishes. It was a lovely evening.
Paul and Fanny are lovely people, warm and friendly. As we arrived and left they gave us hugs and cheek "air kisses" as is the custom in France. They were so appreciative of the charcuterie board, wine, and they were very impressed with the puzzle. They complemented us for being so thoughtful and kind to them! I will say the puzzle was a hit. As they kids came and went as we were outside with appetizers, they showed each of the kids. A huge smile came to their face when they realized it was a puzzle. Coletta especially likes doing such puzzles. The puzzle was a hit!
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