Day 01 - Hollywoods Hit France

Not too early a start today, followed by a taxi drive to a refreshingly busy Gatwick North Terminal. Looks like Covid days are starting to be less impactful.
We were met in the Terminal by Linda & Phil (Mr Paul Hollywood and Mrs Mary Berry) our travel companions for this week and soon we we’re in the snake towards check-in. Swiftly on through to ‘Central Search’ - those that know will know. Everything was fine until we had our first loss of the day, thankfully not Paul or Mary, just a coat which we managed to recover . . . . didn’t we Mary 😂
A quick 1.5hrs later and we landed in a sunny and very warm Toulouse. Swept through all that the security and baggage reclaim had to offer and out to collect our car. Not again were we in our beloved Fiat 500 but this time a Citroen snazzy people carrier thingy.
Heading out of the airport north west on the N224 we arrived in Launac and at our B&B for one night -
Le Clos Du Cedre - which on arrival was absolutely stunning inside and out. Sophie our host showed us around her lovingly converted Stable and Tobacco Drying Warehouse. The 10yrs of work on the building had not been in vane and had we not already pre booked a Gite elsewhere for the rest of the week we would happily if stayed here. Paul showed his comedic routines to Sophie whenever possible and it’s fair to say, even with her limited English (far better than my limited French) she could see the humour. In fact she named Paul as a Man with a Childs Heart - which seemed perfect.
Sophie rounded off her tour with a booking at a restaurant nearby for us and then telling me of the code for the wiffy, which of course was the wifi and not for Teresa.
We killed an hour at the the B&B before setting off for Grenade which was about 10-15 minutes away.
Parked up we walked to the restaurant passing a lovely roofed market square very near to the towns central church.
La Croisée des Saveurs (The Crossroads of Flavours), was a small boutique restaurant in one of the side streets with a small number of tables. Sophie had arranged for the restaurant’s best English speaker to look after us and so ‘Vincent’ became our adopted group member for the evening.
The food was a choice of one from three of each - entrées, plates and desserts. Teresa Paul and Munch opted for entrées of haddock which was treated with lemon ‘cerviche’, whilst Mary and I opted for what I can only describe as similar to white sausage, which from the menu translated to ‘kid’ but Vincent translated to baby lamb. Mains were bouef for all five of us. Desserts of cream and strawberry between two discs of very thin shortbread were for everyone apart from me - I opted poached pear covered in chocolate with vanilla ice cream and crushed nuts!
The food from start to finish was fab, with not a piece left by anyone. Vincent was a star during the evening with all the other staff being polite and charming. Definitely a spot to return to.
A short drive home, then ten minutes trying to get the car to switch off entirely - who knew it could be that difficult.
After a fairly relaxed travel day we had all had enough and our beds were calling our names.Read more