Mercuès

Following the wine tasting we were escorted to the restaurant for our degustation menu with matching wines. We decided to start the evening off with a cocktail - good in theory but a slippery slope when you get a wine paired with each course.

The restaurant was lovely, the staff and every aspect of the service top notch, the wine fabulous and, oh, the food. It was so dammed good!

We started with an amuse bouche which consisted of 3 fabulous treats:- a chickpea humus with prune jam, gravlax with caviar, and a goats cheese mousse tart with fig. Then we had a bao bun filled with mushroom - I could’ve eaten a whole plate of them. Even their bread choices were amazing. In particular, there was an onion pastry, which was to die for, and the chef made butter was a work of art.

Next we had fresh lobster in a cold cauliflower velouté with Bottargo. This was followed by trout from the Gouffre du Blagour, braised lettuce and a sweet Chenin sauce (the dessert wine I bought was used in the sauce). We then had Black Gascon pork from the Gaec Pierre et Terre served with a bay leaf jus. Last but by no means least we had Chocolate Blanc au Citron, which was comprised of citrus cream with an ivory chocolate feuillantine, crisp lemon cake, grapefruit curd and lemon sorbet. One of the best desserts I have every had - light, crispy, creamy and lemony. Then they brought us petite fours to finish off. As nice as they looked I resisted, as I think they would have finished me off, but others polished them off! And, I wanted the flavours of dessert to linger.

What a fabulous experience that will stay with me for a long time, and will be difficult to surpass. We then headed back to our hotel and fell into a food coma.

Unfortunately, we also found out today that Mary our guide had come down with COVID and would have to leave the tour. It was decided that we would continue with Jerome, our driver, who is very resourceful and knowledgeable of the region we are in.Read more