Catherine says:
Today was a day of rest. I insisted that The Little Mother put her feet up and massaged her legs with lavender oil. We hung around the house until midday and then took a Nana-walk up to the centre ville for lunch. We spotted a little restaurant and sat down.
The only thing we understood on the menu was boeuf - beef. This word was prefaced with côte which I knew in another context meant coast but surely this didn't mean they were offering a coast of beef. Anyhow, we ordered it just the same. The animated waitress gestured that this was a rather large dish. We didn't mind. So she took the order to the kitchen and promptly returned saying petit, petit, petit? Well, we know what petit means so we just smiled, nodded and said oui!
Shortly afterwards she brings us something that resemble the whole side of a cow.
This was the biggest beef steak I have ever set eyes on. It was so big it was falling off the plate. Along with it came side dishes of mushroom sauce, broccoli and courgette gratin and something that resembled hash browns but was substantially more classy (of course it would be, it's French!) plus Bob Baguettes, so named by The Little Mother and I after meeting Judge Bob in Amiens who was a baguette aficionado and very particular - a baguette is not a baguette if it is a sourdough baguette!
We both dived in head first as this was the first substantial meal we have eaten since we left Amiens. I'm afraid we've been living off Bob Baguettes, jambon et fromage et tomat!
After we had completely consumed the whole cow the waitress advised us that under normal circumstances the steak is double the thickness (about 2 inches!) but the chef had the good sense to split it in two for us.
We finished the meal with dessert - creme caramel and apricot tart. Delicieux!
When we returned home, we had a little visit from Noeleen who was in a bit of a state because the local coppers had paid her a visit. I immediately went in to some panic thinking it had something to do with the way I had parked the car or that perhaps they had caught up with me for speeding because I still haven't worked out that part of driving a car and the speed limit signs are few and far between here (no TAC exists in France!). However, the gendarmerie were only doing a door knock to find a stray dog! Quelle horreure! Dogs are not permitted to roam the streets without a lead and so the local constabulary were on a mission to save the town from the stray dog! Really, the situation seemed to come straight out of an episode of Ballykissangel. What made it all the more funny was that the door knocking policeman was doing it in his lunch break which, here in France, is sacreligious! Everyone knocks off between 12 and 2 (all the shops shut) so that they can focus on food (hey, this is my kind of country!) so for a man to forego his 2 hour lunch break to hunt down a stray dog is going well beyond the call of duty.
Catherine...you're funny!
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