Cairanne's Vide Grenier - Finally!

Finally, a Sunday to be proud of weather-wise! And thank goodness for the sake of Cairanne that today continued to be sunny and hot. They finally held their annual community garage sale – Vide Grenier – that had been postponed from the beginning of September.

We browsed the rows of interesting junk. Yeh I know, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. But I’m not sure they were selling much at any of the stalls. The event was, however, extremely well attended; due to in part I’m sure, to the fabulous weather.

The butcher had the BBQ fired up and there was a party atmosphere throughout the streets.
If we had extensive packing capabilities, they were a few things that we might have considered, like this set of matching porcelain containers.

But of course, we have no empty space in our bags, so we walked away empty-handed.
We had lunch reservations today at a fairly new restaurant, in Tulette, called L’Atelier du 4. When we arrived, we found a Fermature Exceptionelle sign in the door.
These "Unusual Closing" signs are not new to us. So, on to plan B. We quickly consulted Margaret’s book, which we’ve been carrying in the car for occasions just like this. Then I phoned La Détente, which was about 15 minutes down the road on the way to Nyons. Yes, they had room, so off we went.
The restaurant doesn’t look like much from the road, but as usual, looks here are usually deceiving. They have a beautifully shaded patio with a nice outlook onto the surrounding hills.

Dawn and I opted for different menus today. She chose Le Menu Envie for 23 Euros, while I had Le Menu Seduction for 28 Euros. Couldn’t resist it!

Dawn started with a farandole of grilled peppers with a Nyons olive tapenade, which she followed with fillets of fish in puff pastry with a tomato confit and finished with a fig mousse. Although the farandole is generally considered to be a lively Provence dance, I'm pretty sure they were using the word to describe the way the peppers were laid out on the plate in a circular wheel fashion.
I had a foie gras salad with raspberry vinagerette first and for main course I had duck breast with a honey and sweet Rasteau wine reduction. My dessert was crème brulee, of which I never seem to get enough. With this we had a Vinsobres rose that we both found a little different from other roses, but enjoyed none the less. I think it was more syrah and less grenache.
The food was excellent, but more worthy of note was that the portions were extremely generous. Translated, that means we ate way too much! Light meal tonight for sure!
Inside a tightly closed up house, we escaped the heat for the remainder of the afternoon.
We had a phone call from Aaron last night saying he had arrived in Barcelona and that he and his friends were already into the paella and sangria.
Tonight we heard from the other side of the family with a Skype call to the White household. After the call we realized that we were quite content to be packing to go home. It would be nice to be able to take the weather with us - and maybe a bit of the wine.