Flambé

So today was my birthday meal out, displaced from Valentine's day. It's hard to find places open here in February, so we decided on Le Bastion, since it is our favourite local restaurant for special occasions.  We suspected it would be empty on a Friday lunchtime but in fact there were six other diners! 

It was delicious as usual. As S had volunteered to drive home he drank a single glass of wine, whereas I had a glass of wine matched to each course ... that would be two (French-sized) glasses of crémant de Limoux, a red from St Chinian, and a Banyuls Ambré with the dessert. This is S's dessert, baked Alaska flambéed with Grand Marnier. Mine was an "evocation" of Tarte Tatin, i.e. not a tart, but it was delicious too.

It was raining again, so we didn't linger in Lagrasse. Back home I fell asleep on the sofa, and when I woke up it was getting dark, which was a little disconcerting. I recovered with a cup of lemon and ginger tea and then we spontaneously went round to Sue's for aperos, where I resisted all the food but did drink a couple more glasses of wine. We were shocked to find her and her British visitors outside when we arrived ... it was perishing. But it turned out they'd lit the barbecue in the summer kitchen on the terrace and in there, sheltered from the wind, it was bearable. Once the food was cooked we retreated indoors.