16 Septembre, 2011

Yesterday when I got to L'ancienne Auberge around 2:00 p.m., Dorothee gave me a local grape juice to drink, introduced me to the sous chef, Jean-Denis, and told me she would be right with me after speaking with a client about scheduling a wedding event. Once we spoke, she explained the run of things and told me I did not have to work that day, but that I should rest up for today's work. I, however, tend to become overly excited about things, and even though I was running on a scanty 1/2 hour of sleep on the whole travel route over here, I decided to stay in the kitchen and helped out in any way I could. After a while, I went back to my humble abode in a little cottage adjoining the restaurant. My front door was something out of a storybook, I tell you. I never thought there was a place in the world where nobody locked their doors, and where everyone's door-handle was a metal latch. Yes, it is just like in the movies! Prior to service that day, I had gone on a walk for about 1/2 hour to explore the town a bit. There was not much in the way of entertainment, nor an overly tourist vibe. In fact, the place is stuck in the 14th or 15th century. There are hardly any cars to be seen, and almost every building or house is made out of wood or stone. The streets are narrow and you can hear families speaking in French through the windows, many of which don't have a pane, but just a curtain because the air is so perfect.  The whole city is surrounded by a wall and a street for walking that spans the whole circumference. You can see hills and valleys, small farm houses, and hear lambs bleating. On the other side of the street are houses and an elementary school with a noisy bunch of young French children! But, I will fill you in more on the town later.
       After service last night, I ate a delicious salad, basically the Auberge's version of Chef's salad. It had fresh arugula and local laitue (lettuce) tossed in a dijon mustard vinaigrette, with a topping of julienne carrotte (carrots) and celeri (celeriac), olives noir (black olives), hard-boiled oeuff (egg), jambon (ham), thinly sliced poivre vert (green peppers), and fromage du Gruyere cheese. I fell asleep at 10:00 p.m. and didn't wake up until I got a knock on my door at 8:45 a.m. for prep. work.