We celebrated Francesco’s birthday by arranging dinner at the not-too-distant Chateau de Regagnac, home of Madame Veronique Pardoux who concocted a traditional French seven-course meal. We’d stayed in a nice room in the chateau exactly ten years ago on a quick transit through Perigord - our route home to Italy from a summer holiday in Dorset, England - and the memory was too inviting to pass up.
The evening proved to be enchanting, almost bewitching, what with the rather exotic/quixotic owner, several guests of her b&b operation, a few of her neighbors, and her trusty, faithful, and eccentric maid Arlette shuffling around the cavernous dining room, balancing trays, dishes, bottles, etc.
After hors d’oeuvres, served in a comfy parlor, we were seated at a lavish dining table, festooned with three vermeil candelabras that, along with the glow of a fire in a huge Renaissance fireplace, shed the only light in the non-electrified room.
The first course was a delicious mushroom soup (in season in Dordogne’s woods at the moment) followed by warm figs and foie gras made and presented by a neighbor woman who was also a guest. Then tomato compote - tasting like but thicker than Spanish gazpacho - and the main course of baked leg-of-lamb accompanied by white beans and fried, garlic and parsley-laced porcini mushrooms. A salad tossed with homemade cherry vinegar and sprinkled with Perigord walnuts was succeeded by an array of cheeses. Finally came dessert: chocolate mousse topped with crème fraiche slathered with fresh raspberries.
Madame Pardoux’s fine cuisine was matched by a selection of exquisite vintage wines and champagnes. Notable were the sweet Perigourdin Monbazillac, drunk with the foie gras, a 1973 Loire valley Rose served with the compote, and an amazing 1998 Saint Emilion that accompanied the lamb.
Best of all was re-connecting with Veronique who remembered our earlier visit and who proved an interesting, vibrant hostess. Learning of our renovation plans that include laying out a garden, she promptly promised to come in person to lend advice and fetch along a few plants to help us start.
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