Raining daily.

After double espressos and a crispy warm out of the oven baguette with butter from Brittany and homemade cherry jam I was ready to hike the citadelle.

That dream ended as it started to pour.

The alternative activity, laundry.

Our reward for domestic engineering was lunch.

I must confess we reside in a village that has 4-5 bakeries, a plethora of hair salons and horrible restaurants.

Can that even be possible…bad French food?

Quelle dommage.

I am here to tell you it is an ugly reality.

The closest town possessed one good restaurant.

I was just informed that a new restaurant has opened since our last visit.

The word on the cobblestone streets is Bouchon is very good.

We took the 25 minute drive through lush vineyards,

We arrived at a beautiful limestone structure and walked through an inner courtyard into a modern glass building.

Bouchon is perched high above the river and has a great view across to Medoc where the Grand Cru Classe wines are harvested.

We shared unbelievably fresh and delicious Razor Clams with divine spinach as well as a guacamole type serving of fresh, rich avocado with crabmeat.

I ordered the Bone Marrow which was amazing.

We shared a superb Skate dish with fresh puréed squash and fabulous roasted capers.

Dessert was a beyond incredible cheese plate with fresh baguette and cherry preserves.

The server gifted us a beautiful wine from Languedoc to accompany the cheese board that had prune overtones and was a treat with the cheeses which included Comte, Camembert, Manchego and Gouda.

What a fabulous lunch for under 75 euro along with 2 glasses of wine.

We wiggle waggled home and enjoyed the lush views.

We took the path less traveled by the Gironde Estuary to the corniche to see my favorite homes by the muddy, rapid flowing river.

Creating new memories.