Ste. Cecile

It was another pretty slow day. I managed to fill some of it by playing around with a couple photo editing apps - Aquarella and Brushstroke. The photo of Cairanne above was rendered via Aquarella. There's, as it turns out, a lot more to this than just pushing a button. The combinations and permutations are infinite. So, wanna kill some time? This'll do it. We did take a couple of outings, back to Ste. Cecile for the market and over to Orange to do some shopping for next week, since Sunday is still a closeup day in this part of France.

We finished the day by walking down the hill to la Tourne au Verre, for our first dinner out in France for this trip.

They've had another change of owners since our lsat time here. I think keeping a restaurant viable in a quiet village like Cairanne must be quite a challenge. There have been big changes since our last time here. The huge wine list of local and French wines continues. In fact when we sat down, we were amazed by the array of northern Cotes du Rhone wines they had for sale for take out.

What has changed however, is that there is more choice in the menu, not just a fixed couple of dishes they used to have. That has pushed the prices up a bit, but in my mind this is a positive direction. They now have 2017 recommends from both Michelin and Petit Fute.

This was the best meal we have ever had here. We started by sharing a charcuterie board with a white Cairanne and then Dawn had the gambas risotto, while I had the foie gras ravioli. With that we had a half bottle of Alary Cairanne red.

We finished with a shared caramel sundae and came away very satisfied and impressed. On the way up the hill, we noticed another addition to local cuisine, a wood fired pizza joint beside Petite Jeanette. Eating out in Cairanne is looking up.