Day 17 – 🎶Do you remember, the 21st day of September🎶.

With Earth, Wind and Fire providing the musical accompaniment, we have reached the halfway point of our trip. On this September day, however, we added water into the mix as it was a very rainy day.

The rain started before we went to sleep last night and there was even some thunder and lightning, at least that is what Sue said – I slept through it. When we woke up it was still pouring down rain. For us that meant the Sunday market was not to be. No sense in walking around in the rain and risking getting sick.

We showered and dressed for the day. While Sue was upstairs getting ready, I sat in the library and with the window just cracked a bit and listened to the falling rain. It was very peaceful and almost hypnotic.

We finished the brioche bread we bought at the castle yesterday and had some cheese and sausage with the other bread we bought. A cup of hot tea with honey made the chilly morning much more tolerable. While we ate, we planned out our day. It was an easy plan – stay in and stay dry until dinner time.

We followed our plan to a ‘T’. We hunkered down in the library; Sue read and I worked on the photos and blog. The day actually went by quickly. I guess occasionally singing along with the music and laughing at snippets of what Sue was reading amused Father Time and he kept the clock turning.

In what seemed like the blink of an eye, it was time to get changed for dinner. We both made sure to dress warm for the walk over. Sometime between getting changed and getting ready to go the rain stopped. It wasn’t miraculous, it was just appreciated as we wouldn’t get drenched walking over to the restaurant.

Tom, you have a vehicle, why wouldn’t you just drive over? Easy, we’d get wetter opening and closing the gate and then walking from the parking area. Besides, it’s less than a five minute walk.

Dinner tonight was at the Bistrot des Grand Crus. It just so happens to be the only restaurant open on Sunday, as it is inside of a hotel. Luckily, it’s also one of the better restaurants in town. There are basically seven restaurants in town, we’ve eaten at five of them and have enjoyed our meals. Tomorrow we will try the sixth one.

We had a delicious meal and I upped our wine game once again. We started with an aperitif – Sue had a glass of champagne and I had my usual kir royal with framboise. They serve a warm gougére along with your drink.

I started with an order of escargot that I graciously shared with Sue.

We both ordered the filet mignon of pork with linguine noodles and a dijon mustard sauce. There was fresh bread on the table to soak up the delicious sauce.

We accompanied our meal with a bottle of 2017 Domaine François Raveneau Butteaux premier cru chablis. I was bound and determined to try a Raveneau wine and tonight just seemed right. Trust me, we both thought it was great.

Dessert was another shareable item. Since Sue was “full”, I ordered a mille feuille with two forks – just in case. When it came, those crunchy layers of flaky pastry proved to be too tempting to pass up, so her fork was indeed used.

What a great dinner, especially after being inside on a rainy day. On the way out, we made a reservation for next Sunday and then took a pleasant walk back home.

It’s garbage night, so we made sure we took that out before settling in for the evening. Tomorrow is supposedly going to be chilly and rainy again. We might just break out a deck of cards and a bottle of wine.