Sunday

We had planned to go to the coast on Sunday but since the weather did not look too promising, we decided to head down to a local ferme auberge for some lunch.

In France, a ferme auberge (literally translated as farm inn) is a small restaurant where all the ingredients are produced on site, with the exception of cheese and wine.

The ferme auberge

The place we went to is in a village called Morlanne, which is only 5 minutes from Bouillon.

We all had potage and duck gizzard salad for starters.
The gizzard was especially interesting and it had a very strong taste and fatty texture.
For my main course, I ordered confit de canard which was the most delicious confit I have tasted!
In the middle, there was a large bowl of potatoes fried in duck fat (of course!).

Finally, i had some local sheep's cheese to complete the meal. The cheese was very creamy and had an aftertaste which could only be described as 'sheepy'! Nevertheless, it was an interesting way and tasty way to end this delightfully satisfying meal.

Patrick (Rory and Minette's eldest son) and Rory's friend Mark both ordered the magret. It was a huge portion and I tasted some. In my opinion, it was the equivalent of having a duck steak because its texture was almost identical to a steak's.

Rory ordered canette (a young female duck not bred for enlarged breasts unlike the magret) which was simply roasted.

After lunch, we had a brief look around the village. The village is very pretty and is a typical Bearnaise village, complete with a fortified chateau.

Morlanne

By chance, a classic car club were also in the ferme auberge so there was an impressive collection of classic french cars parked outside the restaurant. It also turned out that they (the classic car club) had visited Cabidos for some wine tasting before lunch.

We were all stuffed after lunch and so Patrick and I hit golf balls around the garden as a vain attempt to burn off the many calories we had consumed.