A (late) friend of ours, Felicity, told us a really funny story which will relate to today’s post in a very round-about way. Her husband was driving to England and near Calais, running out of energy, he decided to stay at the next hotel. A few kilometers further on, he stopped at a rather seedy looking establishment, but as they could offer bed and breakfast, he decided to stay there. Next morning he went down and asked for coffee and croissants. The croissants seemed rather elderly so he asked it they were fresh that morning.
‘Non, Monsieur’, replied the Patron, ‘they are from yesterday.’
‘Well,’ her husband said, ‘I’d like some of today’s croissants, please.’
‘Mais bien sur, Monsieur’, agreed the Patron, ‘come back tomorrow.’

How does this relate to Valentine’s Day and a visit to a restaurant? You’ll find out at the end so keep reading! The restaurant we, and 4 of our friends, chose for Valentine’s Day is in the Chateau de Puymaurin, a very beautiful building with a tastefully decorated restaurant. We girls got all dolled up (beautiful use of the English language) and set off on a very cold February evening to enjoy food and friends (and take pictures for this blog!). I had on a long grey evening dress and high heel boots and kept standing on the back of my dress (I knew I should have gone to finishing school). The two other girls, Sally and Debbie, were also dressed up to the nines and I took lots of photos, but none of us looked collectively at our best in any of the pic’s so you are just going to have to take my word for it!

We arrived at the restaurant at around 8pm and had an aperitif before we wandered over to our table at about 8.30pm. There we proceeded to wait for an hour (ONE hour, just to be sure you understand my annoyance) before our existence was in any way acknowledged. SO no wine, no water, no bread, “rien” (nothing). At 9.30pm the owner/waiter came to tell us what was on offer, take our order and tell us that if we all ordered the same, we could expect to get our food more promptly, i.e., on Valentine’s day and not the next day.

Good thing there were 6 of us as otherwise I think Joerg and I would have bitten off his head, eaten it (we were very hungry at this point) and left. But we were with friends and decided to enjoy our evening anyway. There were 3 starters/appetizers on offer: foie gras (fat liver), gravad lax (raw salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill), or soup. I had the foie gras and it was very good. Debbie had the salmon and that was exceptional. It was sliced thicker than one normally gets it and was delicate in flavour and consistency.

It was 10.30pm when we received the first course and 11.30pm when we received the main course. There was a choice of beef fillet, magret (duck breast) or scallops with black risotto (I assume that it was sepia). Again, it was all VERY good. I had the scallops which are served in France with their coral (or roe) – in the US one generally gets only the adductor muscle (or the white fleshy bit in plain English!). The sauce was divine and I even stole some off Sally’s plate – silly girl didn’t eat her sauce!!

For dessert, most of us had the molten type chocolate tart with a white chocolate sauce and it was also delicious. A couple of the lads had cheese for dessert and it was also good and the portion was large. The dessert was served at 12.25am, so technically we had our dessert the next day. See, I told you I’d get to the point about the next day, even if it’s not exactly the same situation! We thought the restaurant might serve Nouvelle Cuisine – in other words tiny portions – but the portions were very generous. My big problem with the restaurant is the appalling service - sorry William, but as nice as you may be, I can’t get over the time problems.

Quick summary: The ambience is great and the food is great – just don’t go hungry and remember to bring time and patience with you!

Chateau de Puymaurin
Restaurant & Hostellerie
0561.79.10.45