I was barely in the UK for 4 days before I hopped on a plane with the gang from Singapore to fly down to Toulouse in the south of France. From here we shared a taxi down to the beautiful hamlet of Cestayrols while we waited for the fabulous wedding of our lovely, lovely friends D & G and after one last day in Lavaur, I made my way back to the UK for 36 hours and then onto to Lisbon. Here is a selection of the meals we enjoyed at our gite in Cestayrols and a sneak peak at the wedding menu!
We were lucky that a couple of the gang had arrived at the gite earlier in the day and so had been into the nearest town for ingredients for dinner. Other friends had spent the day in Toulouse before meeting us and so were able to bring along some lovely wine as well as items from the local market there for dinner as well. The local produce was all just so fresh and fragrant – the smell of tomato filled the kitchen when we pulled them off the vine and they made a delicious simple Salad with mixed leaves, onions and avocado in a mustard dressing along with a Terrine and Cheese selection. I really love this laidback back way of eating and it’s something I miss having the opportunity to do here in Bangkok.
Breakfast the next morning was a lovely Frittata made with the left over blue cheese from dinner as well as fresh Melon, Saucisson, ham and crusty bread as well as a Banana Cake and Flapjack made for us by my mum and definitely set us up for the day in style!
After walking 3.5km to the nearest vineyard for wine tasting (and of course wine buying!) we made a quick and easy Salad back at the gite – isn’t it funny how even a salad with a boiled egg tastes better on holiday?!
Dinner that night was much of the same, more cheese, salad and saucisson along with some Game Rillettes and Rabbit Pâté that we had bought from the local butcher in Cordes sur Ciel that morning on our coffee run. We also bought a tin of his homemade Cassoulet, made in the butchers using pieces of duck still on the bone as well as whole chunks of homemade saucisse which I simply reheated and topped with some toasted bread crumbs. We spent the rest of the evening out in the village “Petanque” pitch playing what we termed “Potatanque” as we had to use a small new potato as the marker! I laughed more than I have done in ages, especially when taking into consideration what the locals must have thought of us all.
The next day was the beautiful wedding of our dear friends D&G and I think I will save the bulk of what we ate that day for a separate post ( I have dubbed myself the unofficial wedding blogger you see!) I will show you the wonderful selection of canapés we enjoyed at the pre reception cocktail. As D is mostly vegetarian they had plenty of lovely veggie options (Crudités, freshly made Pizza and Paprika Madeleines with mozzarella and mi-cuit tomatoes) available as well as enough Foie Gras (in the form of mini burgers, lollipops and sandwiches with gingerbread) Charcuterie and Chicken Pastillas to keep all the meat eaters (including her new husband G) happy. It was so much fun and we really enjoyed mingling with all of their other friends, and those of their parents who were simply lovely, it was a real honour to be invited and it was a stunning day.
We had to leave the gite the next day and so made what can only be described as an EPIC Fridge Buffet with all the leftovers. Frittata (my friend E makes such a good version!) rabbit in mustard sauce, saucisson and radishes from the market in Gaillac, tomato salad with a heavy mustard dressing and the rest of the cheese. As we were all struggling somewhat we decided to finish off our bottles of local sparkling and sweet wine with it which certainly made the rest of the morning more interesting!
A British Girl Abroad 