Sunday 18 January 2009

End of the birthday week

This is the lovely hot water bottle that Ian gave me for my birthday. I have used it every evening and one afternoon when I was a bit chilly. Hot water bottle are not just for bedtime you know!

I have had a lovely birthday week, my diet has gone completely out of the window, but it has been great.
We went for a lovely meal in our favourite restaurant last night. It is the L'Oie et le Grill in Rancon. We had wonderful food and a good laugh with the owners Veronique and Frances. I wish I could tell you what we had to eat but it is quite hard to describe it. Ok, let's give it a go; My starter was pain perdu with a seafood salad on it, there were cubes of a delicious cheese around the edge of the plate and a really tasty dressing. Ian's starter was a chickpea soup with crispy lardons and croutons. My starter was a crab canelloni with a balsamic sauce, Ians was duck with chestnut and potato mash and a very rich gravy. Desserts were a shortcakey biscuit with peaches and caramel sauce and a chestnut clafoutis with the same caramel sauce. It was all fantastic, but are only criticism of this restaurant is that the portions could be a little bit smaller. Franck, the chef has a wonderful imagination to create all this dishes using seasonal products time after time. We are so lucky that we have a restaurant like this 20 mins away.
We are going out to lunch today at a friends house, they are doing Thai red curry - I can't wait.
These are present that I got from my sister-in-law Tania; some crocus bulbs with little bulbs glasses to grow them in and some sugar swizzle sticks, one mocha flavoured the other hazlenut flavoured. She also sent a lovely looking box of chocolates which I have hidden!
My friend Maggie was supposed to be moving out here last weekend has unfortunately been delayed. However, her and her husband Al should be out here this coming week. I can't wait, we have got so many things planned. She wants to join the book and the knitting group and get meeting people. They have had a holiday home here for a few years now and have been spending more and more time over here. They have a gorgeous house here and are great fun to be with. Hurry up Mags!!!!!

7 comments:

Mean Mom said...

Oh no! I missed your birthday! Belated many happy returns for last Tuesday! So glad that you had a good week.

Your birthday meal sounded delicious. It's been so cold here that I'm eating lots of soup, so the chickpea soup seemed most appealing to me.

Can I join your knitting group? Oh, well, maybe not. It's a bit of a long way to come. ;0(

menopausaloldbag (MOB) said...

Nice to see you have another friend coming out after Breezy had to return to blighty. You sound very happy and that's great as you seemed quite down after Breezy went. That meal sounded wonderful - that's the great thing about France - soooperb food almost everywhere you go.

aims said...

Happy Birthday from me too!

Do you know - we searched everywhere we went in the United States and couldn't find a hot water bottle! What is up with that?!

I had (stupidely) forgotten to pack mine in the trailer and there is nothing like warming up a very cold bed and a sore back with a hot water bottle. Sigh. Never again!

A knitting club! What fun!

I use to be president of one for 5 years....what a ton of work that was. But we got a lot done. Even ended up doing a seminar for a day with a bunch of us giving demonstrations. Then we put on a huge meal (at a hotel) and gave away prizes and did a fashion show. A lot of work. Oh my - but the happy faces and thanks I got made it all worth it.

I LOVE FRANCE said...

My My you are adventourous in your choice of food,I tend to stick to the well known stuff It all sounds scrummy ,glad you had a nice week.
Thats good your friend will be there soon you will have so much fun im sure ,dont forget to blog it all us girls like to know whats goin on , maybe she will start a blog too
Andrea

Maggie May said...

Glad you enjoyed spending your Birthday money.
I do love those crocus bulb holders. Although I've seen the hyacinth ones, I have never come across tiny ones for crocus bulbs before.

Anonymous said...

A friend came for dinner on Saturday and we were discussing pain perdu - so I know what it is now! What a coincidence. Glad you had a lovely meal.

Stinking Billy said...

debra, you are bad for other people's health, don't you know? x