Last market?

 If it’s Tuesday that must mean that it’s market day again in Vaison la Romaine. I have yet to miss this market on our visit to France this time. We had a few specific things that we were looking for but in actual fact we were looking forward to staying in Vaison for lunch. Dawn did a lot of walking today - good for her!

We headed up the hill to the old Village that lies just beneath the castle ruins. There are numerous bistros and cafés up here but we were most interested in the one called Bistrot Panoramique that is part of the Maison D’Ou Hotel to which the restaurant is attached.

This place does indeed have a panoramic view of the town and the hills surrounding it and of course Michelin has discovered this one as well. 

For lunch we both opted for the €39 three course menu. As usual we opened with some champagne with some added cherry juice. Since this is snail heaven we both opted for the escargots for our first course. I neglected to take a picture of this dish but it was quite different from normal escargots servings as ours featured a tomato compote with a poached egg.

The photo above is actually the three dozen frozen prepared snails that we bought at the grocery store the other day - like I said, snail heaven. For main course Dawn had cod while I had duck, of course.  Our sommelier made a nice job of choosing a red for me and the white for Dawn that went with our meals. Gotta love the sommelier!

For dessert we both chose a lovely chocolate and caramel dish.

This was another exceptional culinary experience in a fabulous setting.

Vive la cuisine de France!!

As a footnote to today’s adventures, I have a nice story about kind people. Parking in Vaison on market day is always an adventure. Fortunately on this trip we have a disabled sign which has given us much better spots. Those spots are, however, limited given the throngs attending this market. In our attempts at finding a spot close to the restaurant in the old village, we pulled onto the curb + not unusual in Europe - contemplating that as a parking spot. Immediately a French couple rapped on our window asking if we were looking for parking, to which we answered oui. They said they were leaving and just follow them to their car. Shortly thereafter we had convenient parking. Merci beaucoup!