It turns out Guy is an excellent guest to relax with in the country! Although we got all decked out in our hiking togs yesterday and had big plans to explore les Dentelles de Montmirail on foot from Gigondas after dropping Kate off, by the time we got there, lunch seemed like a better idea. Alas! All the restaurants (where we might deign to dine) in town were "complet". I recalled that there was a highly recommended one nearby. We had seen the sign for it, and we checked the map posted in town. I should have put a kibosh on the notion right there as it was quite clear it was a few kilometres out of town on a road that was only paved partway and led to a "col" of some kind, which as I know from quite a lot of time spent in my most generous bicycle gear is the highest point of any ascent significant enough to be given a name. I put all this aside and off we went, and found the place, and started up the driveway, which was too steep to ascend in second gear, and quite steep to get started on again. I switched with Guy, who sweated a bit himself to get going. OF COURSE this should have been our second cue to turn around, but instead we carried on up an increasingly steep and narrow laneway, only to come upon an area where cars were, in the usual fashion around here, parked every-which-way. Soon we were among them, only to discover when we got to the very beautiful and elegant terrace that the restaurant was "complet". We are determined to go there on another occasion, but think we might walk from the village, since, in retrospect, it was not really that far. Getting out of the parking spot was another sweat-inducing activity for our Guy, who carried on driving to Vaison, where I took over.
We went home and had a perfectly lovely lunch of tartine with tapenade, tomato sauce and fresh goat cheese, and tomato salad, washed down with a bit of local rose. We purchased the wine on the way home when I took Guy on the narrow road through the fields and we stopped at Champ Long. We preceded it however (whilst it was chilling) with a glass from the box. Here we have the first (and last) extant photo of Guy helping himself to wine from a box.
A bit of relaxing reading time followed and then we went to the Blueberry for the usual range of activities, and from there went to our 7:30pm dinner reservation at Le Grand Pre in Roaix, site of the now-well-known-but-still-funny-after-four-years story of the original La Wells siting, where Rosanna, through an intemperate fit of betting got herself into the situation of having to buy my multi-course (and by no means cheap because I am not like that) lunch. Kate seemed wistful on her departure to be hearing of this plan, so she may derive some comfort from the fact that the restaurant was "complet" and we had to eat from the bistro (Le Grand Pre-face) menu. Just to round the karmic circle somewhat, I bought Guy's dinner because La Wells did not make an appearance.
Dinner was delicious and the service was very gracious. I had pistou, lamb stew with pasta, and fromage blanc with fig jam. Guy had a charcuterie plate, saffron risotto with "encornets" (looked like squid), and an apple terrine with apple sorbet.
A little more sweating in the automobile followed as I inched my way out of a parking area suited to accommodate about 5 cars, in which about 12 had managed to wedge themselves. Then we sailed home for a nightcap.
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