Today is Clark's birthday and his wish is to sleep in and hang out at home, and go out for dinner. It's raining, really raining today and cold. Joann and Larry want to do some shopping in Dijon and we need to buy groceries. So no exciting discoveries for us today, but a day to re-group.
First, we need to find a restaurant for dinner tonight. After a few computer searches, we decided that most restaurants we could find are closed on Mondays. And maybe Tuesdays. So I offered Clark the option to have "boeuf bourguignon" for dinner and he accepted. So we added the ingredients to the grocery list.
After breakfast, Joann & Larry headed off for Dijon. Dave and I went to pick up Clark's mystery birthday cake at the bakery in Commarin. The woman in the bakery confirmed that Le Ban Bourguigon was indeed closed today and gave us a list of restaurants she recommended as possibilities.
Oh, the reason the birthday cake is a mystery is that when we ordered the cake yesterday morning, the woman serving us seemed worried that they may not be able to have a cake ready for today. So I asked her to make some kind of cake for 6 people, whatever worked for them. (This bakery seems to be more bakery than patisserie and it must be remembered that there are only 123 people in Commarin.) She mentioned chocolate or citron (lemon). So we really weren't sure what we would be getting. What we received was a lovely, light, square cake with layers of white and chocolate and a delicate frosting on top. (It was only after we ate the cake that we remembered we should have taken a photo. Oops.)
We ate up the pizza leftovers for lunch then Janis, Dave & I headed to the grocery store (Super U in Pouilly, 5 miles away). Dave was assigned to find a cooking wine and we went off in different directions to find the produce, dairy, and meats needed for the next couple of days. At checkout, we were a well-oiled team. We had our shopping bags (courtesy of the house) and while Janis unloaded the cart, Dave began packing the bags. Credit card payment accepted we rolled the rather large, very unwieldy cart to the car, then, when empty, to the cart rack where we locked it into the baskets already there which then pushed out our Euro coin. It's a pretty cool system to make sure carts are not all over the parking lot, or "borrowed" to walk groceries home.
Once home (around 3:30 - time flies when you're puttering around the house), it was time to prepare the beef burgundy. With lots of help from Janis and Dave, we had the stew in the oven by leaving time for light apéros in the quiet room.
Dinner was delicious, cake and a Crémant de Burgunde (sparkling wine - by law, only wines made in Champagne can be called Champagne).
A perfectly fine way to spend a very rainy, gloomy day and to give our bodies a bit of rest after 6 days on the go.
Tomorrow we are headed toward Autun - Roman ruins and a Romanesque cathedral. Supposed to be sunny.
Your shopping carts are the same as ALDI here! Good idea. I seem to recall a Duke's palace in Dijon. But that was over 50 years ago so I ,ay be mistaken.
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