Episode 8 - France continued
The following afternoon we went for the drive to Maintenay Mill.........
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| Maintenay Mill |
.....and Valloires Abbey.
This lovely thrush was on the roadside opposite the Abbey
Next morning me, Mike and Bill amused ourselves playing boules.
In the afternoon Marion drove us to their friends house in Bourthe for lunch. They are in the middle of renovating and still have a lot to do, but it is a lovely old place!
When we got home, we had a bit of a rest then we got ready for the big meal! We were taking Marion and Bill to the village's famous restaurant - the Ferme Auberge - as a belated celebraion for Marion's recent birthday. We got there about 8pm.
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| Walking to the Ferme Auberge |
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| 'Coq hardi' - the beer of Flanders! |
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| Aperitifs....... |
The three big bottles you see are fruit liqueurs, of which we could drink as much as we liked with the aperitives!
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| Entree - Salmon with sorrel sauce - delicious! |
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| Main course - guinea fowl |
and lastly dessert!
It was a lovely
meal – (see photos) entrees, cucumber soup, salmon in sorrel sauce,
guinea fowl with fresh vegetables and jacket potatoes, and a piece of rhubarb tart,
apple ice cream and strawberries in kirsch (I think), then coffee. We took a
long time over it and didn’t leave til about 11pm! The 14th July celebrations in the
village were still going on when we walked past the village hall. It had been another
lovely day and evening.
The following day was Sunday so we had an easy morning after all that food! In the afternoon we all
went to the Hesdin Forest and found a nice place for a picnic, then while Marion and Bill sat and relaxed, we went for a walk for about an hour.
Tuesday - this was to be the big fishing day! In the morning me and Marion made sandwiches for
the picnic while Mike and Bill prepared the rods. About 12.45pm we
left for St Georges where the trout farm was. We really
didn’t think we would catch anything, but had a ‘lake’ of our own and the man
came and put in about ¼ dustbin full of trout.
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| Our 'lake' |
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| Let's eat first! |
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| Here's the man with the trout. |
I was the 1st to catch one – using the special yellow glitter bait Bill had bought in the garden shop yesterday.
After that we started
catching them very quickly and Mike caught one, then Bill, then I caught
another, so we had 4 big enough to eat for tea. We continued to catch them and
in the end Bill caught 2 in total, Marion 1, me 4 and Mike 7! = 14 in all!
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| Considering that Bill can hardly see, he did very well! |
Here's a couple of photos of the trout farm itself.
We
left about 4.30pm and on the way home we had a lovely drive through lots of little villages and up
and down through the valleys.
The roses in France (and the UK) were phenomenal! Obviously it's a good year for them .
When we got home, Marion and Mike prepared the fish. We
had ours with the heads left on and Marion’s without as they preferred.
We parcelled up 2 for Dominique and Claudette, which Bill took up, and when
Annette came past I stopped her and gave her 2 for her and Phillippe.
We then cooked ours with bacon and almonds inside in the frying pan and Marion cooked theirs in foil with herbs and lemon in the oven. We had them with new potatoes and fresh shelled peas and some other left over vegetables and wine, of course – they were delicious!
Episode 9 - Back in High Halstow, UK will be the last episode and should be uploaded in a few days.
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