Beaune, finis

And so, that brings me to dinner on Monday night. As per usual, I left myself in the hands of the experts and duly trotted along to Caves Madeleine, in the Old Town. Also per usual, Hanley attracted a lot of attention, which I think is largely because he prefers to be the one in charge of his leash, so he carries it. This draws a lot of smiles and several times a day I am complimented on how well I've trained my dog, when I know it is the other way around. En route Monday he was startled mid-stream, shall we say, by another dog, dropped his leash and also his aim, which was a tad unfortunate for the leash.......but mostly for me. TIme out for a note from our sponsor: thankfully I had a new package of my fave L'Occitane hand wipes, and I gingerly dangled the leash from a now toweled hand before making him take it back. I was brooding over this a bit when I arrived at the new rest. It was tiny, a few tables for two at the front, the walls lined with wine bottles (as this is also a cave and they sell the stuff), but dominating the small space was a large, long table. I was invited to take my seat at the end, and found myself next to an Italian couple and across from the only other solo diner, a man about 38-40 who instantly went rigid with discomfort. One other couple were seated on either side of the Italians, and we waited for things to fill up. Fortunately, the man across was already through part of his meal, and he sat there nodding compulsively - like it was some sort of tic, but mostly kept his face dropped well down into his place setting. His fingernails were bitten down to the quick - quite painful looking. Well, I sat there and wondered what the drill is: the 3 staff sort of stood at the back of the restaurant, friendly but unmoving, as though they were waiting for a show to begin. I finally asked for an aperitif, then I detected a chalkboard menu: the Italian couple and the British one next to them chatted away to each other. I started to feel this could be a disappointment, but wonderful odours emanated, so I clung to hope while trying not to stare at the chewed up hands of my erstwhile dinner partner as he sawed away at his dinner. When asked if he would like to order dessert he adamantly declined, and once he was off things lightened up considerably......I started chatting with the couple next to me, who were on their first French vacation from Milan.  I ordered gazapacho (divine), Meursault (developing a bit of a pattern here), cabillaud (sea bass) and for dessert, something chocolate-y. He food was lovingly prepared and beautifully served. I would encourage anyone going to Beaune to spend an evening at Caves Madeleine.

We were having a lovely time and then another young man was seated across........ Stuart Douglas is a very friendly and amusing dinner companion: he has lived for many years in Dubai where he works for 'Chef Middle East LLC' and as I understand it, basically what he does is  import exotic comestibles for the very lucrative Dubai market. He buys mussels and oysters and cheese and wine and ham. In fact, he told us he was travelling with a leg of Serrano ham, though he had left it behind in the hotel. His backpack produced the fruits of a very successful wine tasting day.....three open bottles of wine and gifts of cheeses the makers had vacuum packed him. He had a lot of entertaining anecdotes about his buying trips, though this was a vacation and his first visit to Beaune. I was sorry not to have taken him up on his offer to us to share his wine and ham the following day, but I was hoping to be up with the birds for the 4 hour drive ahead. It was a hugely fun evening, and we roared with laughter a few times, the four of parting on the street to go our separate ways and into our separate holiday memories like old friends.  I suppose the restauranteur sees this happen every night at his family style table, but it was a delightful sort of alchemy. Next stop: Provence!

The man with the ham.

With new old friends.