David's 75th Birthday

30 June

David's 75th Birthday

Big kiss from me and downstairs to see the kids off to school.  And as he walked into the kitchen a loud rendition of "Happy Birthday" was sung, these kids are so talented!  And of course a lovely birthday gift.  

A beautiful  'Sangria Jug' from Spain, so rustic and authentic I love it (oh yes and David does too!) along with the requisite "sangria mix" and the recipe!  The last time we had Sangria was in Porto, so I am looking forward to it becoming our favourite tipple.  What was also delightful were the lovely cards that the children had written, special messages just for Grandad.

Then the children were off to school, Hannah and Rachel were into their home schooling, and David and I helped with the housework.  Rachel had organised for Hannah to be with one of her friends over the lunch time and had booked a table at Michael Sarran's restaurant for a slap up lunch.  

  A review : "The post-nouvelle haven for what is arguably Toulouse's finest dining departs radically from the traditional stick-to-your-ribs cuisine of southwest France, instead favoring Mediterranean formulas suited to the rhythms and reasons of modern living. The ambience is contemporary sophistication expertly blended with warmth, and the food is light but flavorful. Delicacies like foie gras soup with Belon oysters or wild salmon in green curry sauce prove that Chef Michel Sarran's two Michelin stars are well deserved. Don't count on a Saturday night fête here. The restaurant is closed weekends—the obvious mark of a sought-after chef who is free to choose his own hours."

We were all in fine fettle, James had come home from work and we went together into Toulouse.  It was such a lovely warm day, and we arrived a bit ahead of time, so went for a short walk to the canal and back.  There was an employee waiting by the entrance to Michael Sarran Restaurant and he was obviously there to help patrons park their car, or in our case, take a few photos 

(I hope he doesn't give up his day job!).  We were then ushered in and shown to the back garden part of the restaurant, which was remarkably quite full by this time.  They had sun shades over the tables and it all looked quite charming.  We discussed quietly which cutlery to use and what the wooden coasters were for (!), we took a surruptitious glance around to see what other people were doing, then settled down and talked in hushed tones about being 75 years old.  

Just a little appetiser to start with

Then the wine waiter came to our table to discuss which wines we would like with our courses and would we like champagne to start.  Bearing in mind this was all in rapid French, we left it to James to decide as he was the most experienced at all this.  The champagne was superb, never tasted any champagne like it,  then the first course was served, David and James had a starter of cold minted pea soup with pigeon samosas, (except James is gluten free so no samosas for him).  Rachel and I had something different (can't remember!!).  

Chef Michael Sarran himself, he called on all the tables - nice to meet him!

Suffice it to say that the food was exactly what you would expect from such haute cuisine and we all had a good time sampling all the delicacies.  The waitrons were so attentive, I certainly felt that I should have married for wealth rather than for love!  A nice touch when the deserts came out - they stuck a candle onto David's cake (probably not the right term!) which shows they are human after all.  No, the whole restaurant didn't break into "Happy Birthday" but it was a lovely touch.

It was only afterwards that Rachel whispered to me that the glass of champagne was €25 each - even now I still can't believe we paid that much.  Still, if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it!

Rachel had suggested we go to see a movie at the local Arts Centre, a sort of 'alternative' cinema/restaurant/garden which shows foreign films as well as serving lovely French food.  

So we did, it was a lovely way to finish the day, Rachel dropped us off and we went in to buy our tickets.  

They had an English film with French sub-titles on, so in my best French I asked for "deux billets.... er.... Cinema .... er....'otel (couldn't think of the name, just knew it began with 'b') David chipped in, "Bordeaux, Bristol, Bangladesh" ...  It had now disappeared from my mind altogether, the woman behind the counter sighed and said "do you want to try that in English?", how rude....  was she trying to tell me something about my French? "Budapest, of course".  So funny, and the tickets were so cheap at €7.50 for the two of us.  

In spite of having a huge meal at lunch time, we still found room for Duck Confit for me and fish for David washed down with a beer for David and a cider for me.  Yes, we enjoyed the film, a bit 'out there' but fun.