Tuesday, October 1st - Day 21 Our Village of Courthezon
A strong "mistral" wind blew all last night, with the whistling sound challenging sleep. Melatonin helped!
Realizing that pacing ourselves on a trip of this length is essential, we decided that a 'jour tranquil' without a drive in the car was in order.,
In the morning, after catching up on news, emails, etc., we walked into town for breakfast. The walk is lovely - about 15 minutes away.
Deb heading out to the village - a bit of road, railroad underpass, then the village.
We discovered that the several cafes in the village weren't serving food and the local boulangerie wasn't serving coffee, so after making a scenic loop through the medieval city and around the high walls, we returned home to whip up quick breakfasts.
Deb had a busy afternoon updating the blog with Munroe, phone calls to sister Kelly and son Scottie, and a Zoom meeting with old school friend, Averill Ambrose. They both are on the Executive Alumni Committee of their elementary girls' school which now consists of an amalgamation of Miss Lightbourn's School in Oakville (which Deb and Averill attended) and St. Mildred's College from Toronto.
While Deb chatted, Munroe walked into town and visited the boulangerie to pick up a 'classique baguette', a sliced loaf of seed and whole wheat bread. A bottle of Cotes-de-Rhone wine (winner of a gold medal at the competition in nearby Orange) was secured for just 7 Euros (about $7.70 US).
One section of an aisle of wine in the little corner store.
Back at the apartment, Munroe made a nice Provencal veggie soup (luckily there was an immersion blender) and a breast of duck stew - made without a recipe (and this showed - we could have used more time to simmer the duck as it dried out in the cooking). Interestingly a lot of duck is consumed in our area, so at least we were in step with the local taste.
Munroe was in touch with his friend from UB days, Mick Thompson, who is undergoing a second round of chemotherapy after having had successful "Whipple" surgery for pancreatic cancer a couple years ago. Mick has moved to Bradenton, Florida where his daughter lives - and where we have visited with him over the past 2 years when we were in Sarasota/Bradenton. Hopefully, he'll be able to beat back this recurrence of cancer with the same alacrity he did the first round.
Homemade soup, stew and a baguette for dinner. Yum.