Monday 18 March 2013

Gensaké - New Restaurant to Try!

We had tried to book a table at the restaurant Les Ramparts in Gensac; however, we were told that for unspecified reasons, they will not be opening the restaurant this year!  When we heard that, we looked to see where else we could go, and found Gensake (http://www.le-gensake-restaurant.fr/).

A charming restaurant with about four simple set menus (a choice of two dishes per course per menu) - plenty of foie gras, duck, steak and so on.  There is a Menu Atlantique with two fish dishes for pescetarians. The food was delicious - steak perfectly cooked "à point", really tender lamb chops.....

The "wine list" was a series of shelves containing the wine stock - red, white and rosé.  They were all priced for take-away, but you add €5 for corkage.  The only downside of this was that the white wine was not chilled, and the red was cooler than "room temperature" (the room was a little chilly).  You can bring your own, but what might be better is bringing an ice bucket!  We had a bottle of a local Bordeaux white (which was as you would expect), and a lovely half bottle of Côtes de Blaye red.

We would thoroughly recommend this restaurant - very reasonably priced for very good food. (Bear in mind the wine comment above!)

Well That Went Well!

We've just come back from an eventful weekend at La Matha.  The weather started off positively - we had lunch outside in the sun on Friday, and it was a beautiful early morning on Saturday, but then got a bit miserable for the rest of the time.  It is March, after all!

We managed to sort a few issues out, none of which were really a problem, and we've taken all the necessary measurements we need for paint, curtains etc.  I took some "before" photos of the "utility" room, which hopefully will have the breeze-block walls rendered and the stone walls finished in the pierre apparent finish we have elsewhere in the house.








I will of course take the "after" photos showing the finished walls and the painted floor!

I also took a photo of where the pergola is going - note the stones on the concrete showing where the posts will go!

Tuesday 12 March 2013

Only a couple of days to go

We're off to the house on Friday for the first time since last Autumn.  We have lists of things to get done over the weekend, mainly measuring things in prep for the April trip - for floor paint, curtains and so on.

It's a good job we arranged for a delivery of firewood, as it seems the weather looks like it will be cold!

We will be trying out a new restaurant in Gensac called Gensaké - we will provide a critique of it on our return.  We had attempted to go to the Hotel Les Ramparts, which we first tried last year, but have been told by the owners that, whilst the hotel is opening this spring, the restaurant won't be for some obscure reason; we had tried to book with them last year, but couldn't get through on the phone, so I think they've been having some problems.

Anyway, we have been looking forward to this trip for some time now - it's been too long since we were last there!