La Charité sur Loire

Barbara Jo prepared a beautiful French petit déjeuner which included plum compote, yogurt, apricot juice, croissants & pain au chocolat. Her table presentation was so elegant. We left for the marché (market) where she bought a selection of foods to prepare for lunch. We all relaxed at Couleur Café, a charming, cozy place where we had chai tea and chocolate madeleines (small sponge type cake). Elizabeth and I did a little shopping. Oh, dear! I’ve been looking for the perfect French map to hang, and I found it. It’s in a hard tube which is great, but it will be a challenge as it doesn’t fit in the suitcase!

We discussed meal selections for today, and I have decided to embrace French cuisine. She is aware of my somewhat limited food selection, but I told her that I really wanted to go outside my comfort zone and try some new food dishes. This is really not a cooking school as I mentioned earlier as we are not actively cooking. Rather, we are being introduced to French cuisine. It’s more like an eating school of French cuisine. She’s great with explaining how she prepares the different dishes. Our lunch had many courses. We started at 1:00 and finished at 4:45! The French take their time eating and enjoying conversation. Nothing is hurried. Glasses of wine are sipped throughout the meal. Our first course was a mushroom pasta prepared with fresh mushrooms slowly cooked in butter with crème fraîche added. This was served over a local nest of pasta. The next course was purée cauliflower which was cooked in water and milk, then drained, and mixed with crème fraîche, salt and pepper and served under a piece of fried cod. The third course was duck confit (we had the leg) served with a cherry sauce and accompanied with yellow and green beans with a little walnut oil, salt and pepper drizzled before serving. For dessert we helped make a fresh pear tart. The entire meal with excellent, and I ate it all! I was quite surprised as to how much I enjoyed the cauliflower purée with fried cod. I’ve had duck a few times in my travels but the cherry sauce made this the best that I’ve had.

Everyone retired to rest or read. Everyone, but me! After all that food, I took off for a long walk through the town and stopped at Couleur for a chocolat chaud à l’ancienne, a very velvety, creamy hot chocolate. Francis, the owner, remembered me from this morning. He was so kind, and we spoke in French for a while. He even came out to see if I was enjoying the hot chocolate.
It’s been a good day…

I added a few photos of her kitchen and dining room.Lue lisää