This post is about Sunday's adventures. As usual, things started quite simply with me drinking coffee and making a beef stew while Kate went for a run. After breakfast, which involved, among other things, about 10 figs each, we got ourselves organized for a little bike ride. We went to Vaison, skirting it on the south side, and then to Seguret. During the hilly approach to that town I noticed another cyclist with very poor riding habits ahead of me, weaving around on the narrow road, but primarily occupying the middle of it. As my overtaking him was inevitable, I decided to do so sooner rather than later when there might be oncoming traffic. Of course he reacted the way all male cyclists do when passed by a middle-aged woman -- he attempted to speed up and pass me. What a lot of huffing and puffing and snorting ensued. Of course I picked up the pace a bit and he eventually tired of the game or something -- he abruptly made a u-turn in any event (according to Kate's amused report). We by-passed Seguret entirely because one can only stand to visit the most beautiful town in France once on any single trip and headed straight for Sablet on a lovely gradual downhill through the vineyards and carried on on the same road to Gigondas where there was the place was hopping due to a community festival.
Fortuitously, we arrived just shortly after noon and snagged a table at L'Oustalet in the town square. It is a restaurant with excellent reviews (Pudlo, La Wells and Michelin). There were a few words on the menu that we did not recognize. One of them was "abats" so we asked the young man who came to take our order. In retrospect, we should have asked the woman who appeared to be in charge. He did not at first know how to explain, but readily agreed that they were "chops" so Kate ordered them, to follow her appetizer of foie gras de canard with pineapple chutney (in red wine) and fleur de sel. I had the same appetizer but played it safe for my entree with "epaule" (shoulder) of lamb. The only other entree we might have chosen was a fish dish. In any event, when Kate's arrived, it was clearly NOT a lamb chop, but we did not know what it was. She tasted one small lumpy bit at the side of the plate and claimed it was liver. Then she tasted an even lumpier bit on top and thought it might be liver, until she dug into the slab underneath it, which was unmistakably liver. Now we think/understand that she was served kidney, heart and liver of lamb. And, imagine, she was the only one in the whole restaurant to order it!
After lunch we went round the corner to the Carre Gourmand (recommended to me (and Glenn) by some British touring cyclists) for coffee and ice cream (for Kate). Actually she ordered sorbet but it was very creamy indeed and intensely apricot-flavoured. I do think it rivals any frozen treat I have tasted in, say, Italy. Full of lunch (which also included a glass of rose and a glass of red each) and coffee and sorbet, we took to the road to Vacqueyras which is quite enjoyable on a non-windy day, and then went through Beames de Venise to Caromb where I finally found the road that goes north from there to meet the road to Bedoin just past the Beaumont du Ventoux Cave curve. It is the road to Lac du Platy (a man-made lake stocked with fish). From Caromb it involves a steep (really steep) but short-ish uphill, after which there is not much pedalling to be done for about 5km.
At home we decided, since it was Sunday and a day of rest, not to come to town to check e-mail, blog etc. We stayed home and read and then enjoyed a very tasty (but somewhat tough) beef stew.
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