Lavender and lovely food - L'ousteau de Baumaniere, Les-Baux-de-Provence

---

"Eating is not merely a material pleasure. Eating well gives a spectacular joy to life and contributes immensely to goodwill and happy companionship. It is of great importance to the morale." - Elsa Schiaparelli.

That quote may or may not be an excuse.

Anyway, to go back a little, have you ever done something but had absolutely no recollection of doing it? Isabel and I made our way to Parking Terreaux in the centre of Lyon just after 8 this morning, had the very pleasant surprise of an incredibly cheap overnight charge for our stay, then promptly lost the parking garage ticket. Twenty minutes and a complete re-pack of the car later, I sheepishly went to explain to the attendant. I was expecting a fairly stern response and some difficulty explaining my predicament, but he was absolutely delightful! He had a record of all the payment machine transactions and could match my card number with the payment. Neither Isabel nor I had any recollection of doing anything with the ticket after removing it from the machine, but there you go. Anyway, finally we were off, driving along the Saone river for the first part of the drive to our destination, Les-Baux-de-Provence, where we would stop for lunch and a walk.

We stopped at a roadhouse to fill up with fuel, which was a new and slightly tricky experience as none of my credit cards worked in any machine at the pump. My blood pressure once again rose for the morning as cars began to queue behind us, but the problem was solved by an attendant inside the roadhouse. We were delighted to find a Paul bakery there, so our late breakfast was a delicious pain au chocolat and coffee. We also remembered to take a photo of our zippy little car as we are growing fonder of it each hour. It does not shake as cars overtake us at incredible speed, or require super-human strength to stay in our lane when we have to pass the multitude of trucks on the A7.

We knew we were getting close to Provence when the fields on the side of the road began to turn purple, and the sun began to shine. There is a saying in Southern France that if you want sunshine, you'll get it once you pass Valence, and that was certainly true for us! In fact, as we drove through the market in St-Remy-de-Provence, we heard cicadas for the first time, signalling the warm afternoon ahead. The road quickly climbed up to Les-Baux-de-Provence, a medieval village on the top of a hill, overlooking cliffs of stone which change colour throughout the day. We were actually heading into the little valley under the village to a restaurant recommended by a friend, L'ousteau Baumaniere.

The menu of the day had changed a little in price since she had been there (!) but when I looked into it further, the chef, Jean Andrè Charial, had acquired a Michelin star since then, which seems to give a restaurant carte blanche to double it's prices! Once I had got over that surprise, we took our seats at a table under a huge tree on the outdoor terrace and just got ready to enjoy. The appetiser that was brought out with much aplomb, was a magnificent sweet onion puree served with a type of focaccia stuffed with basil and tomato. I loved it so much Isabel was teasing me about perhaps licking the bowl. I have never tasted anything similar but I do hope to again! The cheese trolley and the glacè fruit trolley (a new experience for me, and it came AFTER dessert and petit fours!) was rolled to our table in between courses, along with the obligatory palate cleansing sorbet, but honestly, you would need three stomachs to manage it all. We sat enjoying the beautiful sunshine and the cicadas for some time before heading up the hill to walk off our lunch.

The little town itself was a bit touristy for me, and it was getting very hot, so we decided to head for the pool at our destination for the night, St-Jean-de-Ceyrargue.

Now, that was a delight too, but it may be better to post another whole blog entry about our experiences there.

---

Photos

The bread tray
Our main waiter was just a delight, and put up with my pathetic attempts to order and ask questions in French!

Glace fruit trolley
It looked so gorgeous we had to try