Coq au Vin

We had a simple breakfast at home this morning and then headed off to Beaune for my appointment with a hairdresser - I had to take along my Maurice Meade "recipe".  The salon was run by a charming husband and wife team and I was the wife's only customer - so the session was very quick - and also extremely cheap by MM standards!  They have a gorgeous little poodle who is the same age as Ozzie, and he and I became best friends almost instantly - so much so that he sat at my feed for the entire time I was in the salon - following me to and from the basins.

Brian took himself off for a wander around the city centre and to a cafe for coffee and a croissant (they are so fabulous here) and to read his kindle as he waited.  There were a lot of other men at the cafe doing similar things - maybe they had wives at different salons?  Then we set off to find a restaurant we have been keen to visit and make a booking for Friday and visited a Beaune grocery store to pick up a few vegetables, and a patisserie for macarons for tonight's dinner.

During the afternoon, we visited a mustard factory in Beaune.  It was fascinating.  It's a family-owned business and the only mustard factory in Burgundy that uses locally-grown mustard seeds (other factories use seeds from Canada) - and we discovered that Dijon mustard does not relate to where the mustard is made, but to the style of mustard that involves filtration to remove the seed husks.  My eyes were stinging by the time we got back out into the fresh air and I found the tasting a bit too much - but Brian loved it.  I was delighted to make friends with a beautiful black cat who lives on the property instead.

Then back home the long way as directed by Jane - our Tom-Tom - through vineyards and little villages, and we are thrilled that vintage is now in full swing in Burgundy.  The vineyards are a hive of activity and the roads are full of tractors and bus-loads of exhausted-looking young pickers.

And then this evening - the coq au vin that's taken 3 days to make.  Once again Anka, LIncoln and Oscar joined us at 6:30 (they had been off cycling all day) along with Abigail and Jasper.  We started off with olives, a smoked fillet of pork (looks a bit like coppa) cut into thin slices and tiny cornichons served with a Gosset NV champagne.  Then the coq au van with rich garlic mash, lightly steamed cabbage and a green salad, served with white and red burgundies and fresh bread, the remainder of the Beaufort cheese (still a huge piece) from Sunday night with fabulous little black grapes, and a selection of colourful little macarons.

And the wines were fabulous again - Chassagne-Montrachet, Gevrey-Chambertin, Vosne-Romanee and the Gosset.

We had such a fun-filled night tonight.  Lots of laughter and nonsense - and it was wonderful to see Brian and Lincoln in such good form as they had the obligatory night-cap in front of the fire after dinner.  I couldn't possibly repeat what they were saying - but it was very amusing at the time!