DINNER AT THE HEN HOUSE

On Tuesday night we were invited to join Laurence and Christiane for dinner at a restaurant owned by family friends. We met at their house at 7:30pm and enjoyed a drink and snacks. Around 8:30pm we headed out with Laurence in the lead. We drove out of town quite a while before turning off the highway onto a much lesser used road. We continued on this twisty dirt road for about 10 more minutes (passing through a marble gorge) until we were sure that we would never be able to find our way back to civilization. Then we drove into a farm yard. This was Le Bonnerie – an exclusive restaurant housed in an old stone building that was once the farm’s henhouse. We were surprised to see peacocks wandering around the yard and horses in the paddock.
The menu offered three selections for the main course. Logan, Taryn, and Rod ordered the lamb. I ordered the mackerel and Laurence and Christiane ordered les coeurs des canards (duck hearts). For appetizers we sampled cantaloupe with prosciutto, roasted tomato tart, duck with lemon juice and parmesan, and roasted eggplant with roast veggies. These dishes are all examples of traditional French country fare. What a gastronomic adventure! All of the dishes were fantastic. Logan even tried the duck hearts and the eggplant dishes (please don’t faint G & G!) and proclaimed them “really great”.
We had such a good time with our hosts. This was truly a highlight of our time in Castres.

Merci pour le dîner, Laurence et Christiane. Trés fantastique!