My Birthday

My Birthday arrived and I was foolishly mistaken in thinking we would have a lie in, Ha!! dogs don’t seem to understand that on certain days of the year they must lay quietly!!!  Anyway had the usual cup of tea in bed but on this occasion I was let off the “hook”,

Walking by the river

Christine was kind enough to make it.

After a cooked breakfast (a real treat in “Rosie”) we were off to Cognac; arriving exactly where we had planned  thanks to “tom Tom” and good navigation by Christine, we parked in the car park overlooking the River Charente with the Hennessy Factory directly opposite.

After parking walked into Cognac for a look round, have some lunch and find a nice suitable restaurant for my Birthday treat, dinner on Christine

Le Bistro du Claude, where we booked a table

Walking back down to the river through the “back” streets in the old part of the town we came across this un-assuming restaurant called “Bistro Claude” that looked very suitable so we booked a table for later.

Following a nice long walk along the River

to wear Sooty and Bella out, we showered, put on our best bib and tuckers and locked the guard dogs in “Rosie” then walked back across the river to find our restaurant.  Arriving a little before 1930hrs we were shown to our table but a little hesitant as we were the only clients; oh dear what have we done we thought but within several minutes other diners arrived and all French so our fears were put to rest.

Walking in for Dinner

The menu as you will have guessed was mainly fish in its various guises.  To start we had huge Langoustines, but as I chose a mixed dish I also enjoyed oysters and large prawns as well, excellent.  To follow I had scallops and Christine had the chunkiest and tender veal steak I think I have ever seen.  We washed this all down with an excellent bottle of white Burgundy.

Desert followed, Christine had a fresh fruit salad with a difference!  And I had the customary cheese board with a glass of local red win.  Coffee followed for me, and then what we had come all this way for, several glasses of Cognac.  The Cognac we had was an XO and completely unknown to us but we both thought it was very smooth and extremely nice so asked the waiter where we could buy a bottle.  He pointed up the street towards the centre and as we had passed a rather up-market wine and Cognac shop thought that was where it could be purchased.

Back to our car park for the night after a excellent day ending with a magnificent dinner, thank you Christine.