Uzès

Off on last weekend's postponed adventure -- the weather is glorious, and we are in the handsome town of Uzès. After a late night, we didn't exactly get away early, and weren't helped by hopelessly inaccurate information boards at the entrance to the autoroute. If they'd told the truth -- that there was a 5-km traffic jam at the junction in Narbonne -- we'd have stuck to our original plan of using the Nationale in order to avoid the roadworks there. But they claimed traffic was "normal", so a theortetically 12-minute segment of the journey took an hour while we made our unnecessary contribution to the traffic jam. Sigh. We won't believe them again.

Still, we arrived in Uzès in time for a late lunch -- after last night, we still weren't hungry so we just stopped at a cheap and cheerful cafe for panini and soft drinks, followed by an excellent ice cream. Our initial plan for the afternoon didn't work out (more on this tomorrow), so we spent it ambling around Uzès along with loads of other tourists, until it was time to show up at our AirBnB -- a lovely house on a very quiet pedestrian street bang in the centre of town.

We were greeted by Christine, who gave us a chance to settle in and then invited us out to the idyllic garden for glasses of chilled rosé. How could we refuse? We spent a pleasant hour or so chatting with Christine and her husband Pascal; they are keen hikers, so there was lots of walking talk, including some useful tips for possible outings in the Cévennes. And they have cats (four), so cat talk too (with and about them).

When it got a bit chilly, S and I headed off to the table we'd booked at Ten, an Australian-run restaurant close to the Place des Herbes. An atypical kind of place, which is why I chose it, with an eclectic choice of French, Mexican, Vietnamese, and North African cuisine. Handily, the menu offered a mixture of tapas and mains. We still weren't all that hungry, so we ordered two tapas to share -- they weren't really tapas but were just the right size for two not very hungry people. And the mains looked huge, so we were glad we hadn't ordered them. This way we had room for two gorgeous desserts -- grilled pineapple with ginger ice cream and a curry and mango sauce, and strawberries with Muscat, candied olives, and cream cheese ice cream. A happy discovery. Note: I did take some photos for the whatsonmyplate challenge, but the lighting was so dim in there that they were too terrible to blip. Sorry!

On the wine list I spotted an Albariño -- one of our favourite Spanish grape varieties. But this one was made in France -- not something we've ever come across before, so we ordered a bottle. When the sommelier brought it to the table we noticed its provenance with astonishment: Lagrasse, just 10 km from where we live. The sommelier didn't have much more information, but I googled it later, and sure enough Laurent Miquel had bought a domain above Lagrasse and planted just 14 hectares of Albariño. Address duly noted because the wine was excellent and not expensive for something as rare as hens' teeth. Strange coincidence!

Early to bed ready for a very early Sunday morning start, the reason we are in Uzès. Well-informed readers may guess, otherwise you'll just have to wait for tomorrow's blip!