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