Success :-)

The day started off well with a beautiful autumnal scene looking towards Mont Valier from the attic window. The sky was clear as a bell up here at Pissou but we had to make the 25 minute journey down to the Saturday market in St Girons this morning where it was grey and chill. Pissou was obviously above the cloud layer! We spent a couple of hours getting our market provisions (including Andy's genuine Castelnaudary terracotta 'cassoule' that he has been hankering after for a while) and doing the supermarket shop. By then it was 12.30 and we were debating whether to head straight home for lunch or see if we could find a good local eatery which we have so far failed to do. We opted for the latter and decided to follow signs for 'La Table de l'Ours' which was actually on our way home out of St Girons. I was simply dreading the prospect of yet another failed attempt to find somewhere nice to eat at lunchtime, so it was with some trepidation that I walked into the restaurant which was just nicely situated, away from the road, up on a hillside above St Girons. They had a 3 course 'menu du jour' but I thought that would be too much at lunchtime, so we opted instead for the house speciality which was 'La salade de l'ours'. An 'ours', by the way, is a bear - the Pyrenees used to be home to wild brown bears which are now gradually being reintroduced to the area!

Anyway, I digress. The salad duly arrived and it was quite a plateful to say the least! The centrepiece was a beautifully done piece of duck breast, but there were also thin slivers of magret de canard, a slice of fois gras de canard on a slice of lightly toasted baguette, some goats cheese also very lightly melted on a piece of baguette, a lovely green salad with lardons (bacon pieces) sprinkled over it and beautifully dressed. I knew it hit the spot when Andy uttered those words I have been waiting to hear..... "This is actually rather good"! Result! The salad actually met his impossibly high culinary standards! Yee-haa! I was particularly jovial at the end of the meal as I had benefitted from a 1/4 carafe of rather yummy house white wine. So all in all, it was a very successful outing and one that I hope to repeat in due course.