Cooking, Hospitals, Markets & Fetes - April in France

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April 22

We've now been at Villa Farran for 6 days, and getting used to the constant sunshine, warm breezes and outstanding fresh food has been difficult, let me tell you...... The meals coming out of the Villa kitchen are rivalling those found at a 3 star restaurant, I dare say. Nancy discovered you can buy big tins of duck confit here and thought they would be worth a try...amazing! Combined with salads of fresh argula & butter lettuce mixed with heirloom tomatoes fresh from the vine...and finished with the beautiful local Gariguette strawberries - as sweet as any you've picked in the wild - topped with Creme Anglaise.....well, it's amazing we're not all packin' on the pounds.

The long walks during the day, however, are taking care of any worries about weight gain. April 20 was a visit to Avignon, the former home of 2 Popes who refused to move to Rome, from 1378 to 1417. But enough of the history lesson. Avignon today is a vital, beautiful city, rightfully proud of its medieval heritage, as witnessed while visiting the huge Medieval walled city in the center of modern Avignon. And, of course, the famous bridge, The Pont Saint-Bénezet...also known as the Pont d'Avignon, built beginning in 1171 which subsequently suffered through many floods, finally being abandoned after a catastrophic flood in 1668 swept away most of the structure. It now stands, proudly half-destroyed, just outside the walled city. (I guess I'm just a history teacher at heart...can't stop with the history lessons....)

I kept singing "Sur le Pont d'Avignon...", learned in elementary school. We discovered only Sandi, Nancy and I knew the song - and we were the only ones who attended school in Alberta. I guess it was an Alberta Board of Education thing from the 50's & 60's.....

While in Avignon, we had lunch at the 3 Michelin star (the highest rating) restuarant, "Christian Etienne". Needless to say, both the food & the service were superb.

The next evening, 3 of the ladies went into Montpellier to enjoy a cooking class based out of another 3 Michelin star restaurant, Le Jardin des Sens, owned by twin chefs Jacques & Laurent Pourcel. It wasn't a hands-on class...rather, we watched as the executive chef at Le Jardin des Sens, explained what he was doing as he prepared a 3 course meal. It was in French, bien sur, so we missed a fair bit of it, but Nancy's interpretations and the chef's demonstrations meant we were able to follow what was going on pretty easily.

Surprisingly, there were only 6 of us in the class - and the other 3 were all French gentlemen in their 60's! Go figure.

Of course, we ate the meal, with excellent wine pairings, afterwards. It was a night to remember - from the rare tuna appetizer to the rack of lamb through to chocolate mousse...superb food. And as the wine flowed, the 3 gentlement sitting with us became more & more friendly (as did we, I guess!) - we all ended up toasting each other, toasting the chef, toasting the sous chef...I think we may have toasted a few folks outside on the sidewalk while we were at it.....

Earlier that morning, Nancy & I had taken Sandi, who had not been well at all for 2 days, to the local clinic in Sommieres. We couldn't get in until late afternoon, so we decided to proceed on to Lunel, a nearby town with a medical clinic. After driving in circles for a while, we spotted the train station and decided to stop there, assuming there would be an information booth there where someone could point us in the right direction.

No info booth, but I stood in line while an elderly couple apparently booked a round-the-world trip via EuropeTrain......whatever they were booking, it was taking forever. Finally I was able to talk to someone - and, of course, no one there spoke English. At this point, Nancy had left Sandi in the car and come in to see what was taking so long. I was explaining, in my fractured, high-school French, that "mon amie est tres, tres malade!!" - pointing dramatically to the car parked outside - "nous desirons une hopital!!"

Between the 2 ticket agents, who were very concerned, we were pointed to a nearby hospital. We thanked them profusely & easily found it. It was - of course - market day in Lunel, so parking was at a premium. Nancy dropped us off while she went to find a parking spot....as soon as we walked in, we knew something was not quite right. Turns out it wasn't a hospital for emergencies...it was, we think, a veteran's hospital.

I was trying to reach Nancy, telling her to return, when she came through the door. Long story short, the very nice nurse gave us a Xerox of a map, with the road to the real hospital highlighted. We arrived there in short order and Sandi was looked after expertly - we were all very impressed. Even the doctor who first saw her and who spoke English, stayed on past her shift to help the doctor coming on shift, who didn't speak English.

We arrived back at Villa Farran, armed with cough syrup and antibiotics, just in time to take off to meet Judy in Montpellier for the evening cooking class. A full day!!

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