Ceret - its all about the food and wine.

Tried a different place for croissant this morning which involved wandering in the narrow streets of the old part of town.

Its a little store front on a little street and although it doesn't state that its an artisan
boulangerie it does make mention of catalan specialities.

I'm pretty sure that croissant are not a catalan speciality but these were very nice,
light, flaky and crescent shaped (they aren't always).

The only thing on the agenda for today was to visit the cave beside the Chateau D'Aubiry that had been closed last time we went. When we were here 3 years ago the 3 litre boxes (9 Euro) were our house wine and we visited regularly.

We tried the "nozzle wine" (our name for it I'm not sure how it is referred to here)
last time and found it to be a good cooking wine (1.4 Euro a litre, bring your own
container). Good wine is so cheap and varied here there's no reason to go that cheap.

The Chateau D'Aubiry cave is part of a large local co-operative and the large cave here
had the same wine selection.

We had decided to eat out for lunch today and, as we were already well on the way, we carried on to Port Argeles, next to Argeles sur Mer. We walked around the restaurants lining the marina, reading the menus and debating the merits of the different menu de jour. The menu of the day usually includes an appetizer, a main course and a dessert and sometimes includes wine or coffee as well. They start at about 13 Euro and go up to about 20 Euro. We chose one that was 14 Euro, based on the location (in the sun, out of the wind) and the fact that we could all find something to order that we liked.

The view from my seat. George would have been walking the docks and admiring the sailboats.

Dad's appetizer: curried mussels.

Mine; salade vert avec chevre chaud. The baguette had melted cheese and then rounds
of another kind of cheese and herbs, grilled. Mum had a terrine with sautéed onions and meat.

We all had the grilled sea bass which was very fresh and cooked to perfection. The carrots
were served in a sauce that we couldn't identify, thought maybe butter and mustard and
we'd try that at home, but found out from the waiter it was cream and curry.

We had a glass of red wine while waiting and enjoyed the French leisurely approach to dining. Lunch took two hours. The restaurant was quite busy, making us feel that we had chosen well and most were having the menu de jour and the rest were having big pots of steaming mussels.

This guy utilized those big pleading eyes quite well and got some table scraps.

I guess if your going to ask a dog to sit by a table for 2 hours you expect to
provide a few snacks. This one managed to get some bread, French fries and crackers
but none of the mussels he kept eyeing.