Traditional Sunday in Lumes
Posted by contentedsouls on 06/07/2014
We trundled up to ‘Renee’s’ cafe today for a pre Wimbledon final/British Grand Prix/Sunday roast duck dinner; beer.
I mentioned the other day that we had a five course lunch with wine for £10 and, when we were in there today a chap came in and had the same meal. I slowly realised that his approach to the meal was altogether different and I read the small print on the wall a little more closely.
The same bottle of wine and a glass was put in front of him, as was put in front of us – he drank the small glass of wine that he was entitled to, leaving the rest of the bottle on the table – it seems we should have had a glass each, but we didn’t realise that and sank the bottle. When his cheese course turned up there were various chunks of cheeses and half of a huge brie – he ate a little of each and they removed the rest. Deeply mortified by now, I realised that we were not meant to scoff ALL of the cheese on our plate; but we did AND rudely asked for extra bread to wash it down!
If I’d realised all of this beforehand I’d have been way too embarrassed to go back.
Having realised all this I was about to scuttle out in shame and then a glass of champagne appeared – it was ‘Renee’s’ birthday apparently. Then a large plate of bread and cheese appeared on the house. G was under threat of death not to eat it all, but it was sooo delicious. We managed, just, to leave a little. I tried to appease my conscience by thinking that they would have added the extra wine and cheese to our bill – but we worked the maths out and they didn’t. G reckons that if I go in there when he’s back in the UK they’ll force feed me into fois gras!
I’m beginning to think that the only way to repay their kindness, tolerance and patient French lessons is to take in a big bunch of flowers before we leave – the French love their flowers.
Some more pictures from the missing internet period
contentedsouls 
NB QISMA said
When I lived in Cyprus had some friends visit. Drove them to Northern Cyprus. Stopped for lunch at cafe with lovely garden. Had wine and pitta and dips. Only when we wanted to pay were we told it was private garden set out for family party!
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contentedsouls said
Love it! They were, clearly, no more bothered by your (unintentional) arrogance than our Mesdames and Monsieur were by ours – stories to dine out on – loving it!
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Jaqueline Biggs said
I love it! I cannot imagine a French person upset with a good appetite and amazing appreciation for their fine food. I think flowers are a lovely idea. Bone Fete!!
Love JaqXX
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contentedsouls said
I was mortified when I realised what we’d done – I thought the portions were extremely generous!
Any ideas how I can stop G from eating everything on a plate and me from drinking everything in a bottle? If you don’t have any suggestions it’s going to cost us a fortune in flowers Jaq xx
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Caroline said
yes go for the flowers, we did when we were invited to a mill house where the owners of the gite we were staying at lived, Madame was so delighted with them. We did however have to partake in drinking the Pastis, fine if you like aniseed but if you don’t? just down it quickly and ….oh dear it’s filled up again. glad you are enjoying France and loving the blogs again, I’ve missed them.
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contentedsouls said
Thanks Caroline – you don’t want to do overkill, but I do want to show how much we’ve appreciated them and sort of apologise for if we’ve been crass – that’s not putting it right, but I expect you know what I mean. As for the pastis, G loves it! If I get in your situation I’ll remember to down it in one the last second before we leave.
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