September 9, 2026 Breakfast - Melon and Yogurt and Honey Bread. Lunch - Duck Mousse Pate, Brie cheese, strawberries and figs with goat cheese. Dinner - Sautéed Red Mullets with Couscous and Clams and Salad

September 9, 2026 Breakfast - Melon and Yogurt and Honey Bread. Lunch - Duck Mousse Pate, Brie cheese, strawberries and figs with goat cheese. Dinner - Sautéed Red Mullets with Couscous and Clams and Salad 

A slightly more restful day.

We ate bowls of melon and yogurt and I toasted a slice of honey bread and buttered it and spread pear jam on it.

Then Suzette walked to the larger market today that included clothing and food. It is a relatively short walk down the steps at the end of our block to the quai that connects the marina to the town center where the market is located for her.

I had to drive because it was too far for me to walk until I get into better shape.

When I arrived at the Center and parked the car we met at the information office and then shopped for food. I got in line at a bakery booth and talked to a lady from Annecy  while Suzette went to a produce stall and bought tomatoes, strawberries, and figs. We were looking for parsley but could find none. 

When Suzette returned it was soon our time for service. We bought a traditional onion tart recommended by the lady plus two croissants, a boule of country whole wheat bread and a baguette.

Then we went to our favorite fish stall and bought cooked shrimp, six clams, and ten small red mullet.

As we walked through the market that extended for perhaps 1/2 mile back to the parking lot we saw a vender of sautéed octopus and bought a small container of fried octopus for 10 €.

When we returned to the villa Suzette was particularly hungry so I grabbed the container of duck pate’, the slice of brie we bought, and the baguette and opened the bottle of rose we bought at the Maison de Vin. Suzette washed the strawberries and figs and put several on a plate and slit the top of four figs and inserted a small piece of the provencal goat cheese.

It was a lovely lunch, but Suzette found that the rose’ verged on being a white. The grapes were the same three, Mourvèdre, Cinsault, and Carignan but the time the juice spent on the skins must have been minimal because the color was a very light pink. I liked the mild taste, but I guess Suzette likes wines with more of an expression of the grape and character

The figs were not fully ripe but the strawberries were fully mature and very sweet.  It was a lovely lunch as we spread pate’ and the brie on fresh rounds of baguette and followed bites with wine and fruit. A lovely picnic at the dining table on the patio overlooking the bay.

Then we rested until 4:00 when we walked south to the other end of our street to the house where Thomas Mann lived in the 1930’s after the Nazis took over the German government.

When we returned around 5:00 we had a drink and then started dinner.

I filleted the 10 red mullet and minced a small onion and four cloves of garlic.

We decided to cook couscous with the fish. Suzette sautéed the onion and garlic in butter and added the Couscous and then stock and we cooked it on low heat while she fried the fish in butter and olive oil.

I fetched the leftover salad and freshened the balsamic salad dressing with a bit of olive oil and dressed the salad and poured glasses of rose’.

The fish cooked very quickly. Then Suzette added some wine to the skillet and put in the clams and covered the skillet and steamed the clams. Soon Suzette spooned couscous into bowls and added four five fish filets and three clams and poaching medium to each bowl that we took with our wine to the dining table on the patio overlooking the bay.

The couscous we bought was spicy with flecks of what must have been chilis so it was very flavorful. We loved the delicate white meat of the fish that I had almost completely deboned except for one dorsal fin.

After we finished the fish and couscous, I ate most of the leftover salad.

We then retired to the living room and watched an excellent movie titled In Her Shoes with great performances by Shirley Mc Claire, Carmen Diaz, and Toni Collette.

During the movie Elaine called to tell us she and Billy were leaving soon to join us. We will pick them up at the Marseille airport tomorrow.

During the movie Suzette served dessert of pound cake with slices of strawberries and peaches and I had a sip of Marc of Provence. Marc is the distillation of the second pressing of the seeds and skins left after the juice is extracted for wine. It is fiery flavored brandy.

We went to bed by 11:00. No chocolate after dinner so I went to sleep and slept until 6:00 in the morning.

Bon Appetit

September 8, 2026 Breakfast - Toasted Honey bread with yogurt. Lunch - Winery Divine Pleasures. Dinner - Cassoulet of Rabbit, sausage, veal, and duck with salad

September 8, 2026 Breakfast - Toasted Honey bread with yogurt. Lunch - Winery Divine Pleasures. Dinner - Cassoulet of Rabbit, sausage, veal, and duck with salad

I discovered today that Suzette has mastered the recipe for Cassoulet. Her definition is, white beans with all the leftover meats.

In the morning she walked to Portosolis beach and swam while I ate yogurt and a slice of the honey bread spread with pear jam I bought yesterday with a cup of Earl Grey tea with Collagen.  Then I picked her up at the Portosolis parking lot and drove her up the hill to the villa. After a shower she dressed and we drove to the market in Bandol. When we arrived it became clear that it was lots of cheap Chinese clothing mixed in with a dab of Local booths, so we navigated out of the parking lot and drove up the hill to the hill top village of Castelet where the Maison De Vin for Bandol is located in an agricultural zone among vineyards far from the commercial activity along the quai in Bandol.

We were the only guests in the Maison de Vin, so the knowledgeable attendant led us through an excellent tasting of two whites, two reds, and two roses. By the time we finished it became clear that the wines were not randomly selected but were selected for their contrasting flavor profiles.

For example, when we finished tasting the roses Suzette said, “I want to buy a rose in the middle between those two”. And we did plus one of the reds we liked. The reds in Bandol are usually 80% to100% Mourvèdre. The red we bought was 80% Mourvèdre, 10% Grenache, and 10% Syrah. The Syrah smooths out the acid and gives the wine a more earthy finish.

It was approaching noon, so as we paid for our two bottles, we asked the attendant for his recommendation for lunch and he suggested Winery Divine Pleasures in the next hillside village of Beausset. It took us some looking but finally we found the restaurant. The three tables downstairs were taken so we were shown to a table upstairs with a view of the vast shelves of wine downstairs. It reminded me of Marty’s in Dallas, which was also a restaurant in a wine shop.

We ordered glasses of roses and the waiter brought two for us to choose between that he thought would go well with the fish. We both picked the same Vents rose.

Suzette ordered the mackerel appetizer (entree) and I ordered the fish of the day (plat) that was red mullet flash fried and served with a delicious herbed greenish cheesy risotto that we loved. The mackerel seemed to be served in a Moroccan style with chunks of a puffy purple bread and slices of marinated red onion. My four small filets of red mullet was served on a bed of a very interesting onion, sugar, and vinegar sauce. The clean, tender white meat of the red mullet was wonderful.

After lunch Suzette was in the mood for something bubbly, so we bought a bottle of champagne from the. Wall of champagnes. We loved lunch and the three glasses of wine seemed to be included with lunch as well as a spoonful of white chocolate mousse garnished with toasted almond slices.

We returned to the Villa and napped until 6:00 when we prepped dinner.

Dinner - we had the uneaten salad and the now throughly cured shallot balsamic dressing, so we only had to make cassoulet for dinner.

I sliced one large leek, 1/2 of a small green pepper, three cloves of garlic, and one large mushroom and then I deboned the meat from two rabbit legs while Suzette diced the 1/3 duck breast and 1/4 veal cutlet plus one pork sausage.

                                    The deboned rabbit and sliced mushroom
     

 She added the rabbit bones to the stock she was cooking and then sautéed the vegetables and rabbit and duck meat and added the veal with fresh rosemary leaves. She drained the can of white cassoulet beans and added them to the cooked meats and vegetables and then added some stock. She cooked the mixture until it began to thicken. Then she poured it into a deep pie dish and covered the surface with cubes of bread and drizzled them with olive oil and baked it for an hour in a 300 degree oven until the flavors had blended into a thick sauce and the bread became delicious olive oil soaked croutons.

The bits of rabbit were incredibly tender and the mixture of beans, vegetables, and meats was amazing. I can not imagine a better cassoulet, although the one she made for me on the Valentine’s Day when we first fell in love was pretty special.

We ate outside in the warm glow of the evening light on the bay.

The fabulous food tour of Provence is continuing in vigor.

Bon Appetit

September 7, 2026 Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate and toast with Tomme De savoie cheese Lunch - BLT Dinner - Sautéed Veal chops and Smashed Potatoes with Caper, red bell pepper, green onions and wine reduction

September 7, 2026  Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate and toast with Tomme De savoie cheese Lunch - BLT  Dinner - Sautéed Veal chops and Smashed Potatoes with Caper, red bell pepper, green onions and wine reduction

Another amazing day and the best parts were not the food. We went swimming at Portosolis beach around noon and did a tasting at Domaine Terrebune at 4:30.

I slept until 10:30 and ate a toasted pain au chocolate and a slice of boule white bread with butter and slices of Tomme de Savoie cheese at 11:00

Then we drove to the Portosolis Beach. Suzette swam and I waded.

When we returned to the villa at 1:00 we made BLT sandwiches. We sautéed two slices of bacon and toasted three slices of bread. We then spread mayonnaise on the toast and lay slices of tomato on the Mayo and then the fried bacon and finally lots of lettuce.  We drank Kronenburg 1664 beer with the sandwiches.

The fluffy white bread did not stand up to the juicy 1/2 inch slice of tomato and soon collapsed into a soggy delicious mess as it absorbed the ripe tomato’s juice.

We rested until 3:30 when we drove to the local coop store where we bought a fancy brand of olive oil, Marc De Provence, a honey spice cake, and a Vermouth made in Provence.

We then drove to Domaine Terrabune for a tasting. Although Suzette made the reservation for tomorrow, they offered us a tour in English. We tasted six wines, a white, two reds (2020 and 2016) and three Rose’s (2020, 2024, and 2021). We liked the 2016 red the best, rated 97 points (€52) and the 2024 rose’ (92 points). We bought a bottle of the 2016 red and a newly released 2025 rose’ (€23) that, our hostess said, “Was better than the 2024”.

The vineyard is in an agricultural area high on the hill above Sanaray, where the hostess said there is a base of limestone that is a relic of an ancient sea bed that gives the wine its strong minerality and even slight saltiness, similar to Cambados, Spain.

We needed toilet paper and a couple more items, so we stopped at Instamarche on the way home. I went a little wild, I saw veal rib chops and bought two, plus two bars of milk chocolate with raisins and hazelnuts to go with the Marc. Suzette bought Riciola lozenges and oranges for the vermouth. We also bought ham and duck pate for snacks.

When we arrived at the Villa at 6:00 Suzette fixed us each a vermouth with a slice of orange. This Provence vermouth was incredibly herbal and did not appeal to me much until the ice cubes melted some and the vermouth absorbed some orange flavor after about 1/2 hour. Suzette drank her vermouth on the patio between the living room and the garage in a lawn chair.

At 7:00 we started preparing dinner. I sliced two green onions, a large mushroom, the last 1/3 of the red bell pepper, and 2 T. of parsley. Suzette sautéed these ingredients with a small handful of capers to make a sauce.

She smashed and sautéed in a different skillet six or seven potatoes boiled yesterday in butter and then removed the sauce ingredients and sautéed the veal chops in the sauce skillet.

When the veal chops were cooked she removed them from the skillet and returned the sautéed vegetables and reduced the sautéed vegetables with rose’ wine at high heat AndI deglazed the veal pan drippings and join them with the vegetables until slightly thickened to form a sauce. She returned the veal chops to the skillet to warm them and coat them with sauce. This is the type of cooking that can rarely be found in restaurants that we love to cook precisely because no shortcuts are taken.

We ate at the table on the patio beside the kitchen with its exquisite view of the bay.

We also made a salad from the 1/4 leftover heirloom tomato from lunch’s BLT and 1/2 of a yellow tomato, plus cucumber and I minced two T. of shallot and added it to a balsamic dressing Suzette made for the salad, but I could not finish my veal chops, so the salad and the dressing went into the fridge for tomorrow with my leftover veal chop.

We opened another Pallatier rose for dinner that we liked two days ago that I had bought two bottles of at Instamarche, because the hostess at Terrabune said a good rose’ complements veal well. We agreed.

After dinner I drank a sip of Marc with some of the chocolate bar and Suzette drank another glass of rose’ while we watched an episode of the Tina Fey directed Four Seasons series on Netflix and went to bed at 10:00.

I awakened at 11:30 to finish this blog. I wonder if President Trump had such a pleasant day?

I am feeling much better today and Suzette says she wants to swim in the bay every day. The sandy beach at Portosolis cove is only about a ten minute walk downhill from the villa, so the plan for tomorrow is for Suzette to wake me and then walk to Portosolis and swim while I eat a snack and then join her for a wade while she swims and then drive her back to the villa for breakfast of a veal omelet.

Bon Appetit