Our first meal in France

Our first great meal in France was in the village of Fayence.  We had made reservations at La Table d'Yves.  The weather was just about perfect, so we ate outdoors on October 20.  After a long flight, one night in a B and B that was nice but unremarkable, we picked up our rented car and drove to this lovely village.  The restaurant sits outside of town and from where we sat outside, we had a beautiful view.

The amuse buche, which means to tickle the palate, was beautiful.  Parmesan sablets, palmatiers with tapanade and tomato confit.   Tickle it did, indeed!!

I did not take a picture of the cauliflower soup with truffles and truffle oil because....well, it was so good, my spoon never rested.

My first course was pear and blue cheese in fillo dough.  It was very good, though the blue cheese was quite strong.  Never fear, it was eaten.

We both had guinea hen breast with a mushroom and chestnut stuffing.  It was very good.  Note the unusual way of cutting and serving the guinea.  The gravy was delightful.  For me, the stuffing was a little too sweet, but loved the chestnut crunch.

What could possibly pass for dessert?  You see, quite often when you order the plat du jour, it comes with an appetizer, main course and then dessert.  This restaurant added a lot of other little treats.  So what you see above is not really just your traditional creme brulee.  You see, it has a pink cast to it because it is flavored with violets.  And yes, I really, really enjoyed it.

When you order coffee in a nice restaurant, which is only served after the meal is complete, you usually get a treat with it.  What you see above is what I would describe as vanilla pudding with cherry jello in the glass, rose-flavored marshmallows (handmade) and an small almond cake with a cherry.  It was quite the topper to a great meal.

Since this was the noon hour and we had much more driving to do, we each had only one glass of wine.  Here, The Trout, is sending cheers to all.  We arrived safely in a country we love and are ready to eat and drink our way through almost 3 weeks of fun.