Chateau d'Apigne

I've been straying away from my blog's main raison d'etre this last week.  I'll tell you about what I've been up to in my next post which will also get me back on track, Pout-wise.

In the meantime, even though I'm aware of my back to back foodie posts, I thought I'd share a little of France with you today.

During our recent trip to France we enjoyed a few restful days at Chateau d'Apigne, before heading back home.  I reported on our arrival here, but without photos.   Consider that failing now remedied!

The Restaurant

Lunch in this elegant dining room was so perfect.

After the drive, on a very hot day, we were so relieved to be able to sit in this cool restaurant and enjoy a superb glass of chilled Pouilly Fume.

The restaurant staff were pretty superb too.

I always think it important that bread is offered when wine is served, and these guys did not disappoint.

We were then given an amuse bouche of quails eggs, salmon tartare and cold tomato soup.

Perfectly cooked crayfish with a pea shoot coulis, if my memory serves me correctly.

 Lobster, again seriously cooked to perfection.

A pre-dessert palate cleanser.  Something with white chocolate.

Creamed rice served in a dark chocolate shape and with raspberry coulis.

And finally, coffee

and restaurant chocolates of the day.

The restaurant staff are professional, knowledgeable, flexible and friendly, making dining a wonderful experience.  The brilliant and charming chef talked at length with us about the dishes after the meal.

The restaurant is closed Sunday evening and all of Monday.  We just about sneaked under the bar to enjoy lunch in the crowded restaurant see my tale here.

The Room Service Menu

When the restaurant is closed, a restaurant-standard room service menu is available.  The arrangement in the hotel is that the duty-receptionist also serves breakfast and any room service meals.  The receptionists seem to love this arrangement as they learn about food as well as the usual hotel side of being a receptionist.

The chef prepares room service food in advance.  The duty receptionist is taught how to warm through and serve the dishes.  Our duty receptionist this visit was Alexei.

The courses were served separately and superbly in our room by the so-accommodating and utterly charming Alexei, together with a delightful dry white wine whose name I didn't make note of.

Our starters were ...

Thai coconut milk soup with prawns and noodles.

Galette filled with smoked salmon and a taste-bud-exploding leek puree.

Our mains ...

Poached chicken with red peppers, onions and tomatoes.

Brandade of cod recipe here.  How can something with a few simple ingredients taste so bloomin' good?

Pudd ...

Then later, after a walk around the grounds, we shared a cheese platter and finished off our wine.

Fabulous food at Chateau d'Apigne. And a fabulous stay.

Thank you, Alexei and the team.  We'll be back!

I wanted to share this with you just in case you're ever in the neighbourhood, because I'm sure you'll love your visit too.

A la perchoine.

Jour #8 - Desperately Seeking Home!

Last day in France, peeps.  And last French holiday daily post for you, you'll probably be relieved to hear!  I set myself a challenge to post daily on holiday, I hope it hasn't been too tedious for you.
 Back to normal technology now. And 'normal' posts!
Back to lovely family and friends.  And a demanding garden.  And cat!


So.  Time to leave.  On a very hot day.

The OOTD

Flowery top (in sale) over white shorts, both Dotty P.

I have never worn shorts as much as on this holiday!

The Breakfast

As well as all the lovely fresh products for brekkie, today's treat was sort of drop-scone pancakes.

Yesterday's was crepes.

Ouch, that sun!



Fresh croissant are always laid out on the tables. 

They seem to taste so much better in when baked by French bakers.

We pass on the brioche, cake and crepes de jour but do enjoy a croissant :-)

and can never resist their creamy scrambled eggs

and their thinly sliced bacon.

The Apology

Now I have an apology to make.  To the Peugeot Chocolate Teapot sat nav lady.

We realised this morning that because of the v. bad digital display the poor lady has been given by naughty Peugeot, we had not selected Her for 'fastest route' as we thought we had.  We corrected Her and lo, she gave us a pleasant and speedy journey from Rennes to St Malo.

We have endured such horrid journeys, not our fault, not Hers.  Peugeot's bad choice of system instal.  But we now see that she can at least get us from A to B by the fastest route.

So, apologies to Barbara in Canada - yes, she was programmed incorrectly!

The Ferry Home

We'd left the chateau early to allow for Her usual shenanigans.  But, of course, she behaved impeccably and got us to the harbour in lightning speed.

So there was a long wait until the ferry docked.  On time.

And then a long wait until all travellers disembarked.

And then finally we were onboard and leaving pretty St Malo behind.

The pretty medieval walled town of St Malo.

A bientot.

Until the next time.

A la prochaine.

Or should I say,

A la perchoine.



Jour #6 - Un Jour Parfait!

Days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 ... something missing?
Oh dear, bit of holiday madness - I forgot to press 'publish' on Day 6.  So, I now give you #6.  After #7!


My holiday is nearly over :-(.

I'm so thankful to you for sticking with me through the bad OOTD selfies and limited availability of just about everything techy!

Once more, dear friend - The Head.

And the rest.

And with apologies, a lurking Photographer.

Oh these pics are getting worse by the day, eh?!!

But for what it's worth, I'm wearing a Peacocks stripey t-shirt, Dotty P linen white shorts and Next navy mix cardi.

  

Yesterday started fabulously.  The sun was shining and the weather had started to warm up again.

After another super breakfast of fresh melon,  croissant and creamy fruit yoghurt, one of the lovely Chateau ladies took us on an indoors tour before we left.  Wow!  I loved the place and am longing to post you some pics soon. It's perfect.

We mapped out our journey but of course Madame le Pot de Te du Chocolat* started taking us along a crazy route again.  So we stopped in a car park and worked out a sensible route from where we were parked.  With a combination of map, scrap of paper with scribbled key route points, road signs and sometimes Her, we made our destination in an acceptable time a few hours later.  Perfect.

* we call her much worse, but that's the name we're giving her in polite conversation!

And oh joy!  For when we arrived at

Chateau d'Apigne,

the receptionist just about managed to squeeze us in for a fabulous lunch, even though the kitchen had closed by the time we arrived.  That's one of the things that brings us back to this beautiful chateau, the staff bend over backwards for their clients.

The chateau's restaurant was filled French families, a lovely atmosphere.  We were the only foreigners.  You always know the food will be good when it has such strong local patronage.

First course was the best crayfish I have EVER tasted, second course was the best lobster I have EVER tasted, and I passed on third course. Pigeon.  Nuff said. 

Now the creamed rice pudd was very good but not as good as mine (note to self, post recipe) but it was served beautifully with a load of fancy chocolate work, raspberries, so maybe I should up my game a bit - I usually just serve mine with cinnamon sugar or some cherries and almonds, if I'm pushing the boat out!

All this yumminess was washed down with a bottle of pouilly fume and later, a double espresso.  

The meal in one word?  Perfect.

And then, we enjoyed what we'd planned.  A good post-drive relax (a a bit of blog writing!) before a leisurely evening walk through the grounds and an evening coffee in the bar.  No more food for us.  Obviously.  Not after THAT lunch!

This day was all about getting to our next destination without getting wound up by Madame and then starting to wind down before going home.  And that is what we did.

What a lovely, fresh, light-touch room.

Relaxing.  Winding down.  Taking time to stop and admire the curtains! 

Perfect.

A la perchoine.

Jour #7 - Desperately Seeking Neutral

Just look how far downhill we've travelled this week.

You've now come to expect ...

The head.

And the rest.

Next chinos and lacy top. A pretty neutral OOTD.

I didn't think it could get much worse.

But my goodness, it just has - this one is bad!

I even photographed with a Venetian blind marking its territory about my person!

Then after working to the constraints of the bathroom mirror (and its blind) for two days, I found ...

... a wardrobe mirror!  Oh what luxury.  What new technology.

I was sooo excited.  So excited that I didn't spot The Photographer lurking behind me as I shot my Magasin equally neutral ecru/black linen top worn over my neutral shorts combo. 

So! Last day of the hols.  Back tomorrow to technology.

The chateau does a lovely scrambled egg breakfast.  And loads more.  I'm starting to think we come here just for superb food.  And the superb service.  And the superb decor.  And the superb location.  Oh heck, we come here for loads of reasons!

But I am embarrassed to tell you about one of Rennes' big pulls. Which got me doing what I did today. The last day of my hols.  You have to come from a small island to understand why I did what I did.  And to know and understand my back-story.

For I went to IKEA, just a 10-15min drive from the chateau.

To pay homage to this armchair, as it turns out.

I found it here in Rennes 3 years ago.  In neutral fabric.  It was a Goldilocks moment - it had me at hello.  It was perfect.  I fell for its comfortable sitting experience.  It's looks. And it's colour.  Neutral.

Since then I've searched 2 stores in the UK.  And 2 stores in Denmark.  Searched hopefully online - UK, Denmark and their HQ Swedish site.  All of them countless times.  

Each time I've found the chair in other colours 

but not neutral, the colour I crave.

Sometimes I thought I'd imagined it, but then I found a photo of me sitting in this very armchair in this very Rennes store, 3 years ago.  I reasoned that it must have been an introductory one-off.

But no!  It was there today.  In the Rennes store.  Blatantly available in this colour.   You see, the thing is that only France seems to sell it in the neutral fabric.  Both in-store and on-line.  Why?!!

I checked the flat pack dimensions.  It's a huge box.  

We didn't have room for it in the bloomin' car!

And on that bombshell, peeps,

A la bloomin' perchoine!