A great day out

In order to see an eye specialist, we took the long way round to Montpellier this morning. It was a beautiful ride, past Pic St Loup and all the outstanding vineyards. Montferrier, our destination, is a small village to the north of Montpellier and appears to have several specialist clinics, one of which is this swish, modern, eight doctor clinic specialising in all things to do with eyes. As usual I got a good going over and Dr E thinks that I might have to have drops for glaucoma, but will discuss this with my optician, who sent me there, for a second opinion, in the first place. I get the impression that I'm 'at the top end of normal' and as my mother has it as well, then treatment is probably necessary. We shall see. It's funny how your body starts to fall to bits as you get older!

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As a treat for being a good boy, Jan suggested that we stop in St Mathieu de Trevier for lunch. 'Lennys' (formerly known as Apicius but had to change their name after a complaint from a similarly named restaurant in Paris 500 miles away - typical French protectionism) is right up there as one of my favourite places to eat. Jan's choice was the best. She had the 18 euro lunch menu and whilst I wasn't impressed with her starter, the swordfish main course was superb. On the other hand my starter, scallops on a risotto of Jersualam artichokes was amazing. My pork loin was good and was served with a test tube full of a beautiful mushroom sauce. We both chose the same pudding, tarte au citron, but nothing like you have ever had before. What looked like a small glass tumbler was in fact made of sugar and crumbled as I tried to pick it up and get my spoon to the bottom. Another little surprise came in the form of an inter course mouth refresher. Madame brought a small shot style tumbler which I immediately took to be full of a raw egg. Madame (the chef's wife) immediately burst out laughing because this was the anticipated reaction and one of the chef's mischievous little surprises. It was in fact a mango puree floating on a lemon and elderflower syrup. A great gag and typical of this extremely inventive chef. Highly recommended.