First thing - Dinner last night at a new restaurant (opened in Feb) in St Avit Sénieur - La Table de Léo, lovely. The owners are young, this is their first restaurant but they have quite a bit of experience and the chef worked at Le vieux logis in Trémolat before going it alone. It is essential to book, last night they turned at least 15 people away while we were there as they were fully booked (and no they won't just fish something out of the freezer to make a quick buck!)
Second thing - I'm a bit diffident about this as I'm not much of a cook, it is a recipe - I bought some apricots which turned out to be bullet-like & I needed a pudding : cut them in half put in an oven dish in a single layer cut side up, sprinkle with sugar and ground almonds, pour over some apricot liqueur (because what else are you going to do with it, eh) put in hottish oven for 15 minutes then add cream & cook for another 10 minutes max. Voilà, abricots au gratin!
The Grappe d'Or was my canteen for ages esp when the girls were small, so convenient. I always make a pig of myself alas with the soupe du vendangeur...
Oh yes - alas my apricots were fresh but not one was remotely ripe! Hence the need to transform them while people ate the rest of supper!! mind you I should have guessed seeing they were still there unlike the cwt of other fruit that had been on the kitchen table...
Let me know if it is good - I did it as a last minute emergency thing (hence lack of precise quantities etc) when I saw there was no chance anyone could eat them in the usual way! I bet you could use rum etc, I happened to have some Clovis Raymond apricot and nobody actually drinks it.
Le Vieux Logis at Tremolat is LOVELY - you want to be outside in the garden which is heavenly. Not cheap but you get what you pay for, there's also le bistrot du vieux logis over the road v nice too and not as expensive, good for lunch.
They have à la carte and 2 excellent menus at 18 (entrée plat dessert) and 28 euros (slightly fancier entrée plat fromage/dessert) and sometimes a special that you find out about on the day (it depends on what there was on the market, last time I went it was carré d'agneau & ris de veau with cèpes as an entrée).
Thanks for the tip, that goes on the growing list of new places in the area where fishing out of the freezer is off the menu. Now to find some dosh to be able to afford a decent evening out!