Sheep, Flowers, and the Blanot Auberge

A herd of sheep were in a field with a pond in Blanot near the road just beyond the auberge. We saw them because I wanted a picture of the next field with all its buttercups, known here as Bouton D'or. That would be translated as buttons of gold. That's Bouton D'or in the field beyond the sheep.

It becomes a mass of color in photographs so Elisabeth cut a bouquet for me of Bouton D'or...

I have yet to catch a good photo of the wild shrub that is in bloom along roadsides, so Elisabeth cut a stem of Genet for me. It now graces the fireplace mantle.

This is just one stem! It really does cheer up the roads. Below is the one-way section of road leading to the pottery in Blanot. The mass of reddish flowers are referred to as Spanish lilac.

Elisabeth's birthday will be next week so on Friday we gathered at the auberge for dinner...

From left to right...me (the oldest), Elisabeth (the youngest), Anne, and Francoise. 

Scarves on us all. In the States I forget just how comfortable scarves can be, and it was a chilly night.

This is also Francoise. She and Florence, who does the cooking, own the auberge. They are delightful people. Both the food and the service is super!


Time for appetizers. We all picked something different. There was a touch of honey on each slice of my fresh goat cheese.

For the entree, I chose the beef and potato with a cream sauce while the others had the veggie bowl.
Florence makes a marvelous lemon meringue tart and 3 of us chose that for dessert!

 Elisabeth stuck her almonds into the meringue when suddenly a candle appeared...

It was the end of the evening so Florence came out of the kitchen. She told us the funniest story about another lemon tart she had once made! I won't tell it here as a bit of revenge for the email Mimi and Harriet Ann have promised with their adventure story that they have yet to send!