Well, that's Christmas over!

Just a short post today to let you know how our first Christmas Day in France went.  Of course, it seemed very strange not to be seeing family and Danny found it especially hard not to see his sons.  But with the benefit of technology he spoke to or "messaged" all of them.  I'm sure they found it just as strange as we did and I have a sneaky feeling that at least one of them missed seeing his dad on Christmas Day.

Danny and I exchanged gifts, which is something we always do on Christmas morning no matter what else is happening during the day.  We had a light breakfast - we didn't dare have our usual Christmas morning fry-up as we would be having lunch earlier than normal.  We then got ourselves dressed up (nice for a change - I can't remember the last time I wore a skirt and high heels!!) and set off for the restaurant http://www.alabonnevie.com/restaurant_en.html

There was a champagne reception and we were introduced to the other people with whom we'd be sharing a table.  There were two other couples (at a guess, I'd say just slightly older than us!) and a family of four, mum & dad probably early 40s with two lovely daughters of 18 and 15.  We had all been asked if we preferred to sit in our separate couples/family but I thought it was a nice idea to sit in a group and obviously, so did they!  In all there were four tables and I guess around 30 people in total.  If you could have seen and heard all of the balloons, poppers, streamers, not to mention shrieks of laughter, you would not have believed this to be a bunch of mostly older people out for a civilised Christmas lunch.  Add to that, one of the men leading us through a sing-song of the Twelve Days of Christmas and you can perhaps picture the scene.  I should mention that the tables were all beautifully laid and decorated and we each had not just a high quality cracker but also a gift box containing the afore-mentioned poppers and so on.

As to the meal itself, I have reproduced the menu below, just to make your mouths water!   I chose the turkey for my main course but even though I say so myself, I think my roast turkey dinner is normally superior!  Other than that, the meal was superb and we didn't get home until about 5.15pm.

Champagne Reception and Canapés 12.30pm

Starters

Sweet Potato Velouté Soup with Pine Nuts

or

Fig, Orange and Goats Cheese with Candied Walnuts

or

Confit of Duck and Apple

  

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Potted Smoked Salmon with Lemon and Tomato Dressing

 

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Lemon and Vodka Sorbet

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Main Course

Roast Turkey with all the trimmings

or

Pheasant Stuffed with Black Pudding and Apricot Served with Brandy Cream Sauce

or

Roasted Trout with Seafood Broth 

 

 

Served with Seasonal Vegetables and Potatoes

Stilton and crackers 

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Desserts

Christmas Pudding with Whisky Custard

or

Chocolate and Cherry Amoretti

or

Wild Berry Iced Pavlova

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Coffee with Warm Mince Pies and Christmas Cake

  

I have to confess that no sooner were we home, the skirt and high heels were swapped for PJs and slippers and before long I was on the sofa in front of the TV!!

I think I wrote that being able to get into the restaurant had been a last minute success and I had already ordered a turkey from my local boucher in Moncoutant.  I had decided not to cancel my order so guess what I'm doing today!  Yep!  Cooking a full Christmas dinner with all the trimmings!  Ah well, at least all of our pets will get to have some leftover turkey - I'd hate them to go without!

I hope all of you reading my blog had yourself a very Merry Christmas and that you've enjoyed reading about ours!