Lancaster, June 2016

To accompany my most recent entry on my other, work-related blog (at http://cjrwilliams.blogspot.co.uk/), I thought that my recent few days in Lancaster would be a good opportunity for a blog entry here as well.  After all, even though the purpose of the trip was work, I see no reason why food can't still play a big part, albeit not the leading role.  Just in case anyone from Finance is reading this - please note that I have not claimed any of the following meals on expenses, apart from the conference dinner (which I think is justified)!

The purpose of going to Lancaster was to attend the JULES Annual Science meeting and training course, running this year from 28-29 June 2016 at the Lancaster Environment Centre.  For those not in the know, JULES stands for the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator and is a community land surface model that evolved from the Met Office Surface Exchange Scheme.  That's quite enough science for this entry - for more scientific information about JULES and the meeting itself, please see my other blog.

Monday 27 June
We left relatively early in the morning, in bright sun.  However, this soon diminished as we drove northwards, becoming progressively cloudier and darker, and after a long slow drive up the M40 and M42 we stopped for lunch just north of Birmingham.  This, I will admit, was not a gastronomic highlight.  The service station was very busy, and we just bought a simple sandwich and cake from Costa.  Leaving the service station, the roads were very busy as expected, and my hope that it would clear once on the M6 soon proved to be overly optimistic.  The motorway, although fluid in places, seemed to have roadworks every 10 miles or so, meaning it was stop-start virtually all the way.

Finally, after a 6-hour long and tiring drive, we finally arrived at Lancaster around 5:30 PM in the pouring rain.  We found our hotel, The Tollhouse Inn, easily, nicely located on the main road in between the city centre and the University.  We checked-in with no problems, having plenty of time to unpack and recover in our comfy room - this was on the first floor via a large lift, quiet and warm with a large double-bed with plenty of space around it, tea and coffee making facilities (including biscuits!), and a good-sized bathroom.  Outside the room, the hotel itself was a very nice old-looking building, with quirky corridors and a well-stocked pub and bar dining area downstairs.

Once we had unpacked, we went downstairs for dinner.  The place would probably describe itself as a gastro-pub, because the menu was impressive and contained all the usual pub classics as well as some more fancy dishes.  According to the menu, most of their food was locally produced, the majority coming from Lancashire itself.  There was also an impressive array of local beers and ales, although it being evening time we stuck to wine and enjoyed a couple of glasses of their Chilean Sauvignon blanc.  I started with one of their specials, a whole roasted quail stuffed with apricot and sage, whilst Debbie had a Dutch vegetable soup with ginger.

The quail was lovely and the stuffing accompanied it perfectly but, despite being small, it did feel a bit like I was eating a main course as a starter.  The soup smelled lovely and apparently tasted great, although it was incredibly thick and more like a puree than a soup.  We then moved onto a main course, with a classic battered haddock and thick cut chips for me and a hanging kebab/skewer of roasted vegetables and halloumi for Debbie.  Both of these were very nice, albeit enormous.  I had ordered the small version, which still resembled a whale, so heaven only knows what the large version was like!  We were too full for puddings and, given the purpose of the trip was work, managed to get an early night.  An impressive first meal.

Tuesday 28 June
The following morning, after a very restful night, we got up early to make the most of their breakfast before my meeting began.  This was also impressive, with a self-service continental buffet and then several hot choices.  We shared an enormous full Lancashire breakfast, comprising sausages, black pudding, a fried egg, mushroom, tomato, hash brown and baked beans.  I'm not quite sure what made it a Lancashire breakfast as opposed to a full English breakfast, perhaps the local sausages?  But it was very very nice.

The rest of the day was taken up by work, and is reported in my other blog.  To be honest, it was a good thing we were going nowhere as the rain was heavy and relentless.  Lunch was the usual university affair, with a selection of meat, fish and vegetarian sandwiches and rolls, accompanied by juice, tea and coffee.  The conference dinner that evening, however, was really quite good.  There was no choice as is usually the way, although I had alerted them beforehand that Debbie was vegetarian so she and many others were able to eat.  We started with melted brie covered in breadcrumbs, accompanied by a cranberry sauce.  This was followed by roast lamb, which was surprisingly tender, accompanied by a potato fondant and a selection of vegetables.  The vegetarians were given a rather odd looking chickpea curry, which looked rather uninviting but was apparently very edible.  We finished with an extremely rich and indulgent chocolate tart, and so all in all it was a very good meal.

Wednesday 29 June
We again got up very early, to enjoy another breakfast before I got on with some work prior to rejoining the meeting.  We did the same as the day before, sharing an enormous full English breakfast, which again was excellent.

The rest of the day was again all science-related, and we returned to the hotel at around 6:30 PM after a long but interesting and thought-provoking day.  Given the intense and monsoon-like rain (although without the heat of a proper monsoon) outside, we decided to eat in again.  On this occasion, we shared a starter of an asparagus and blue cheese frittata, which was essentially very similar to a Spanish tortilla and was really very nice, although I couldn't really taste the blue cheese.

For a main course, I went for the roasted sea bream on crushed new potatoes whilst Debbie had the squash and blue cheese Wellington - the fish was very flavoursome, although perhaps slightly overdone for my liking, and the Wellington was apparently very good.  We were again too full for puddings.

Thursday 30 June
After another restful night, we again woke early to make the most of breakfast before the meeting restarted.  On this occasion, I went for their signature breakfast of Eggs Benedict - a perfectly poached egg covered in Hollandaise sauce and sitting on a bed of cooked ham and an English muffin.  This was really very good - the muffin was slightly dry, but the sauce made up for this.  Debbie tried the vegetarian version of the full Lancashire breakfast, which came with 2 large vegetarian sausages which were apparently very good.

Again, the rest of the day was taken up by science, until the meeting finished around mid-afternoon.  Given the long drive, we had decided to stay another night, so we spent an hour or so driving around Lancaster to see the sights.  We had hoped to get up to the large Lancaster Castle on the hill overlooking the city, but it was shut so instead we walked around the impressive Lancaster Cathedral.

Returning to the hotel, again in heavy and seemingly unending rain, we again decided to eat in.  Not very adventurous I realise, but it was so wet outside that we couldn't envisage yet another soaking.  After a drink in the bar, we had another lovely meal in the restaurant, beginning with chicken liver pate for me and goat's cheese balls for Debbie.  The pate was lovely and was almost a mousse, served with a beetroot chutney and sourdough.  For a main course, I had an enormous seafood pie containing haddock, salmon and prawns, which was really soft and moist with a rich creamy sauce.  In contrast, Debbie had a cheese and onion tart, which seemed to go down very well.  Given that it was our last night, we finished by sharing a white chocolate and raspberry mousse, which had a lovely silky texture and went well with the accompanying shortbread biscuit.  So again, another very good meal.

Friday 1 July
For our last morning, we again got up early to make the most of their excellent breakfast, again sharing a large full English (or rather Lancashire) grill.  Once packed, we left the hotel, again in the rain, and rejoined the road.  The journey back was equally long and tiring as the way up - constant roadworks and therefore traffic all the way down the M6, heavy traffic around Birmingham and on the M40, then slow moving on the M4 back to Reading.  Lunch was again a gastronomic lowlight, being a sandwich in another crowded service station.  Finally, at about 5:30 PM and after another long long day, we returned home.

Apart from one hour, I honestly don't think we saw the sun once since leaving the Thames Valley.

Recipe: Very cheesy pasta (fancy “macaroni cheese”)

This is a more complicated, but much tastier, version of the student’s favourite - it is a relatively simple and quick-and-easy dinner, but avoids the use of a roux and therefore doesn’t taste floury or gloopy like other cheese sauces.  The cheese sauce is based on a recipe by Heston Blumenthal, but significantly adapted.  If meat is required, chopped up fried bacon (or alternatively a tin of tuna) can be added before baking.  Serves 2.

Ingredients

Approx 150 g dried pasta (e.g. penne, fusilli, macaroni)

1 white onion - finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic - finely chopped

Sweetcorn (either a small tin, or one cob)

Approx 80 g blue cheese (e.g. Roquefort or Stilton) - chopped

Approx 80 g hard cheese (e.g. Beaufort or Emmental) - grated

A small tub (approx 200 g) of cream cheese

A couple of slices of white bread

Parmesan cheese

100 ml white wine

100 ml vegetable or chicken stock

Cornflour

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Method

Blend the bread to make fine breadcrumbs.  Spread over a wide oven dish , and dry out in a warm oven (100°C conventional / 80° fan / gas mark 1 or lower) until golden

Add a generous splash of olive oil to a small frying pan, and fry the onion for a few minutes until soft.  Add the garlic and sweetcorn (if using corn on the cob, boil the cob first for 5 minutes then slice of the kernels using a sharp knife), and fry for another few minutes

Put the pasta, with a generous pinch of salt and small splash of olive oil, in a large pan of water.  Boil according to packet instructions, normally around 10-15 minutes.  It wants to be slightly more al dente than would normally be eaten.  Drain

Combine the white wine and stock in a small pan, and boil furiously until reduced by half.  Remove from the heat, and add the rind from the hard cheese.  Leave to sit for around 20 minutes

Meanwhile, add a tablespoon of cornflour to the grated hard cheese and stir

Remove the rind, then on a low heat stir in the grated cheese until melted.  Add the blue cheese, and again keep stirring until melted.  Add the cream cheese - not all of it may be needed, so just adjust according to consistency.  It should end up being fairly thick and creamy

 In a large oven dish, combine the pasta and the onion, garlic and sweetcorn.  If using fried bacon pieces or tinned tuna, add now.  Stir, then pour over the cheese sauce.  Top with the breadcrumbs, a generous covering of Parmesan cheese, and black pepper.  Bake in a preheated oven (200°C conventional / 180° fan / gas mark 4) for 20 minutes.  Serve.

Recipe: Tomato and chorizo risotto

Based on my travels in Bologna, this is my own spin on a standard risotto and is a great way to use up ripe home-grown tomatoes after a good harvest.  It can be as spicy or mild as the user wishes - simply adjust the paprika to taste.  If a vegetarian version is wanted, substitute the chorizo for quorn sausages and add more paprika.  Serves 2.

Ingredients

Approx 150 g arborio rice

6-8 ripe tomatoes, preferably on the vine

1 red onion - finely chopped

2-3 cloves of garlic - minced or finely chopped

1-2 birdseye chillies, depending on taste - whole, but with a little slit to stop them exploding

1 chorizo sausage - sliced

600 ml vegetable stock

White wine

Butter

Approx 50 g Parmesan cheese - grated

Tomato purée

Sugar

Paprika

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Method

Quarter the tomatoes, and put them in a blender along with a teaspoon of tomato purée, teaspoon of sugar, splash of olive oil and salt and pepper.  Blend until smooth.  Add the stock slowly while blending, until a liquid consistency is reached - should end up with at least 700-800 ml of tomato stock

Add a generous splash of olive oil to a large heavy bottomed frying pan, then sauté the onion and chorizo for about 5 minutes - until the onions are soft and chorizo has released its oil.  Add the garlic, chillies and a teaspoon of paprika, and fry for another minute

Add the rice, and stir to get it covered in oil.  Add a generous splash of white wine, and boil rapidly until it has all been absorbed

Add the tomato stock one ladle at a time, waiting until the fluid has been absorbed before adding the next.  Stir occasionally, but keep an eye on it to avoid drying out.  This should take around 20 minutes.  Add more vegetable stock if the tomato stock runs out

Once the rice has expanded, become creamy and is no longer chewy, remove from the heat and add a generous knob of butter and the Parmesan.  Stir, then cover and leave for 5 minutes.  Remove the chillies, and serve.

Recipe: Stuffed mushrooms

This is based on a starter I had once in Paris, and is quintessential simple bistro food.  It’s particularly good during the mushroom season, when unusual mushrooms are available.  The plums need to be quite ripe, and the cheese needs to be a soft but firm blue - good examples include Morbier, Gorgonzola or a hard Stilton.  The beauty of this starter is that the filling can be made in advance and kept in the fridge, until needed.  For a vegetarian version, simply omit the bacon.  Serves 2 as a starter.

Ingredients

4 Portobello mushrooms

1 shallot - very finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic - minced or very finely chopped

A handful (4 or 5) mushrooms of another type (e.g. chestnut, button or closed cup) - finely chopped

2 plums - stoned and finely chopped

Approx 50 g blue cheese - finely chopped

Approx 50 g Parmesan cheese - grated

A handful of flat-leaf parsley - finely chopped

Bunch of watercress

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Method

Add a generous splash of olive oil to a small frying pan, and fry the shallot and garlic for a few minutes until soft

Add the chopped mushrooms and the plums, and fry for another few minutes

Remove from the heat, and stir in the blue cheese and the parsley.  Season to taste

Remove the stalks from the Portobello mushrooms, by snapping them out.  Remove the gills, by scraping them out with a spoon.  Peel and wipe with kitchen roll, but DO NOT WASH!

Place the Portobello mushrooms in a large oven dish, then cover each one with the filling.  Cover with Parmesan.  Bake in a preheated oven (200°C conventional / 180° fan / gas mark 4) for 15 minutes.  Serve on a bed of watercress

Recipe: Christmas cake on Stir-up Sunday

A bit of a short blog entry this time, to quickly document my Christmas cake making, which I did this year for my grandmother on Stir-up Sunday.

For those who are interested, this term is commonly used in Anglican churches to represent the last Sunday before the season of Advent.  It is widely believed to have been introduced to the Victorians by Prince Albert, and comes from the opening words of the collect for the day in the Book of Common Prayer of 1549:

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people
That they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  
Amen.

This year, it occurred on Sunday 23 November 2014.

Anyway, I digress.  The cake.  Now then… I make no apologies about this, but I will admit that I cheated.  Instead of doing it the hard way, I bought the Waitrose Christmas cake ingredients box - where all the ingredients, excepting the fresh ones (e.g. eggs) are supplied and weighed out.  I know it's cheating, and if Mary Berry was to read this she would probably be very disapproving, but never mind.  I made it last year and it turned out rather well - it's quicker and easier than measuring out and preparing all the ingredients individually, and it avoids ending up with hundreds of half empty bags of ingredients.  So yes, it is lazy, but just deal with it.

The process was really very simple.  I began by greasing a 20cm cake tin with generous butter, before covering the sides and bottom with enough parchment paper to decimate a small forest.  I realise the cake needs to be protected against the heat of the oven, but with this much paper I reckon it would survive a nuclear blast at close range.

Once protected, all the supplied ingredients (plus a couple of others, such as eggs and orange zest) were carefully added and incorporated, before pouring the mixture into the tin.  This was then covered in yet more parchment paper, before going into a low oven (140°C) for roughly 2 and a half hours.

2 and a half hours later, and with the kitchen smelling lovely, it was ready.  After the usual skewer test, it came out of the oven and slowly cooled down, before having its paper removed and being re-wrapped, ready for Christmas.  All that remains now is to decorate it much nearer the time, and (more importantly, in my mind) feed it once or twice a week with a selection of spirits - my preferred ones are Cognac, Calvados and dark rum.  Yummy.

BBC Good Food Show 2014

In my mind, the month of November has never been particularly exciting from a gastronomic point of view.  Hallowe'en (with the joys of pumpkin pie) has gone, Guy Fawkes' Night (with the joys of mulled wine, jacket potatoes, cold feet etc) is over more or less straightaway, and Christmas is still a way to go.  Thanksgiving provides a small interruption to a month of foodie emptiness but, not being American, it's not much of a big deal for us.  True, November is a good time of year for root vegetables and shellfish such as mussels and oysters, but otherwise there's little to celebrate.  That was until I started my usual pilgrimage to the annual BBC Good Food Show, always held in London around mid-November.

This year was my 3rd visit so, I admit, I'm still relatively young in Good food Show counting.  We left home in the morning, getting to the show around 11 AM and joining the masses that were already there.  We were expecting it to be busy, but it was definitely busier than the last couple of years - crowds of people everywhere and at every stand and stall, with long queues for the more popular areas.  Fortunately, however, the place is enormous with countless stands, so although everywhere was crowded, nowhere was too much of a crush.

After a quick coffee and plan of action, we began by working away around the 4 quarters of the lower level.  We began in the baking area, but didn't stay long it was very busy, with lots of children taking part in cake decorating - although this looked like fun, we were a little old compared to the rest of the demographic.  So, more appropriately, we moved into the spirits and liquors corner - passing, on the way, a very good spice and herb stand, where several purchases were made including dried lime and curry leaves (not easy to buy elsewhere), fresh lemongrass and a selection of dried chilies.  I also bought a mini grater, designed for things like nutmeg, garlic and ginger.

A happy half an hour was then spent among the spirits, where we tried several things including some flavoured vodkas (the butterscotch was interesting, albeit way too sweet for me) and a rather interesting rhubarb and ginger gin.  This went particularly well with dark chocolate from a nearby stall, and was definitely and rapidly needed by me to remove the taste of truffle that I had tried moments earlier in the vain hope that I might suddenly like it.  I didn't.  Following this, we wandered around the rest of the lower level, trying everything we came across and buying a couple of things including some flavoured olive oils (individual sun-dried tomato, basil and rosemary), wooden hand-carved serving spoons, smoked garlic, vintage matured cheese and a fancy (but almost certainly unnecessary in my kitchen) cheese grater.

Given that it was by now well past lunchtime (not that this overly mattered after all the tastings), we paused for a quick bite of lunch from one of the sushi stalls.  It would have been nice to have gone to the main Good Food Show kitchen, but the queue at this point was 30 deep so we decided against it.

Following this, we went upstairs and queued up for the SuperTheatre, as it was approaching the time for our pre-booked show - this year, Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry.  This, as expected, was very amusing - as always, considerably more slapstick (and at times a little risqué) compared to their usual TV personas, but a lot of fun.  Mary Berry cooked a fairly quick and simple Swiss cheese, chichen and spinach dish, which I plan to repeat later on this week.

After the show, we wandered around the upstairs section, nominally called The Producers Village and comprising numerous food and drink stalls.  Having bought a selection of fudge and other patisserie, we finished off by wondering through the wine area.  We hadn't booked any official winetasting, but maybe next year.

Given that it was approaching 5 PM by this stage, and my wallet was crying out for a rest, we decided to call it a day.  A very successful, albeit expensive, day.

Musings from Paris

Given that the sands of time are rapidly running away, and my memories of this amazing week are already fading, I thought it was high time to write this up.  We are now early October, and this trip happened in early September, so hopefully I will remember most of the important details and be true to the week.

Ahhh... Paris.  No matter how many times I go (and I'm lucky enough to have done so on numerous occasions over the years), the City of Light never fails to dazzle and inspire the soul.  It is undoubtedly my favourite city in the world and, despite not being a city-boy by any means, is somewhere I would very much like to live.  I like to think I'm wise enough to realise that the reality of living and working there would be quite different, and that the romance would wear off pretty quickly - Paris, perhaps more than most, suffers from all the usual capital city annoyances including congestion, traffic, overcrowding (particularly endless tourists), noise, pollution, poverty and social inequity.  However, for the visitor (be it a regular old-timer or Paris virgin), in my mind there's something about the city which sets it apart from any other - possibly the stunning architecture, abundant art, eclectic music, chic people and, above all, incredible food.  I don't know.

The purpose of the trip was twofold: first and foremost, perhaps unfortunately, it was a work-related trip.  That being said, despite being sad to be locked in a seminar room for 3 days, any reason to go to Paris is a good one.  The second purpose was to have a little holiday.  The balance was about half and half - we left on a Saturday, catching the Eurotunnel and driving from Calais to Paris, stopping roughly halfway overnight.  We then spent 3 days at work, before another 3 days of holiday.  So not a bad balance.

The first day was relatively uneventful - it was a grey, fairly cold day as we left Reading, and the drive to Folkestone was its usual boring affair.  We were a little late thanks to heavy M25 traffic, but managed to get on the next train and arrived in France with no drama.  The weather there was similar - perhaps slightly warmer - and the drive through northern France was again without drama.  I had, completely at random, found a hotel in a small place called Nœux-les-Mines, just to the south-west of Lille - originally a centre for coal mining as the name might suggest, it is now a small industrial and farming town with a handful of shops, bars and the small 19th-century church of St Martin in the centre.  Our hotel was located just out of town, and was a large (recently renovated) mansion containing comfortable rooms and a smart restaurant area.  We had a great meal that night, beginning with a small tray of amuse bouche containing delicate pastry-based cheese straws and a small glass of fois gras topped with fruity jelly.  Accompanied, of course, by the usual favourite - a kir.

The meal itself was also excellent, comprising of pan-fried foie gras followed by roasted cod and a selection of local cheeses for me. Debbie, being vegetarian and knowing full well that the French are not great when it comes to this (despite a massive improvement to 20 or even 10 years ago), was expecting to have a week of goat's cheese salad and bread - much as she did on our recent trip to Brittany.  However, she was pleasantly surprised and impressed by her broad bean risotto, followed by morel omelette and crème caramel - indeed, I think it ranked top all week.

The next morning was another non-descript day, warm but with mostly grey skies and a light breeze.  After checking out of the hotel, we drove the remaining kilometres to Paris and arrived around lunchtime - it being Sunday, traffic was fortunately light and so Debbie's slight trepidation (understandably so) about driving in Paris was, for the most part, unwarranted.  Our hotel, a comfortable but standard Ibis, was right in the heart of the city, deep in the 7ème arrondissement and a stone's throw from the Eiffel Tower.  Sadly the Tower was not visible from our 7th floor room, but was from the lobby area.  After a light lunch (the unbeatable croque monsieur) in a nearby bar, which would become our local, we spent the remainder of afternoon unpacking before walking out early evening towards the Champ de Mars and the Tower.  The most noticeable thing during lunch and our evening stroll was the warmth - unlike Reading, summer was still in full swing in Paris.  It had been my intention to take Debs up the Tower however, no doubt thanks to the warm evening sun, the crowds were out in force and the queue for the lift was both massive and seemingly stationery.

Instead, we settled for seeing it from below, and after taking the obligatory photographs went in search of a little nearby bistro I had read about previously - La Fontaine de Mars.

The restaurant surrounds a tiny cobbled square with a large fountain in the middle, hence the name.  We hadn't booked and, having located it down a small side street off Rue St Dominique, were a little crestfallen (but perhaps unsurprised) to find it heaving and with a long queue.  However, to our surprise, they promised to get us a table in an hour, so we wandered for a bit and passed the time pleasantly with a kir at a nearby roadside bar.  Returning to the restaurant at around 9 PM and despite yet another long queue - at least I don't think the same people were still waiting - they found us a small table on the corner of the square, and we had a truly excellent and memorable meal.  The bistro was classically laid out, with red check tablecloths, smart waiters and a traditional menu.

Having served us with wine and thinly sliced saucisson, I began (with some trepidation) with 6 snails.  The reason I felt some trepidation was not because I have any problem eating snails - I have done so many times before.  It was because, on every other occasion, they have resembled garlicky rubber.  One of my favourite authors and fellow Francophile, Peter Mayle, admits that when it comes to eating snails, 95% of the time they are not done particularly well and are chewy and rubbery.  However, I thought it was time for another go - and I'm so pleased I did.  They were, without doubt, the best snails I have ever had - meltingly soft and perfectly garlicky.

My only regret is that I reckon I've now had my 5% of good snails, so am doomed for another long list of chewy ones.  My main course of confit duck with fried potatoes was equally good - not something I usually order, but amazingly tender and rich in fat.  Debbie also did very well, and despite not having many vegetarian options on the menu they did themselves proud - serving leeks in red wine as a starter and then inventing a selection of vegetables, all cooked well and prepared beautifully.  Despite being fairly full, we couldn't resist the tarte tatin as a desert which, again, was perfect and quite different (in a good way) from our own attempt - the latter was much richer in caramel, and therefore sweeter, whereas in this one the apples were much more prominent.
Both very nice, in different ways.  After a final coffee, we staggered back to the hotel, exhausted but immensely satisfied.

The following morning was less enjoyable, with the alarm going off at some stupid-o'clock, and the next 3 days passed in a bit of an exhausted and coffee-fuelled blur.  Although the meeting was interesting and worthwhile, spending 8 hours a day in a stuffy seminar room is never relaxing.  The meeting was hosted by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), which was a thoroughly impressive building covering a large part of the arrondissement and overlooking the École Militaire.  Lunches were held in the main UNESCO restaurant, with a wonderful view of the Eiffel Tower, and despite being in a canteen environment were actually very impressive.  This was Paris, after all.  Each day lunch consisted of a small salad to start with, followed by a choice of things - I think I had rabbit one day, lamb tagine another and salmon on the last - followed by a desert or cheese.  Wine was on offer, but none of us did - I might have been tempted to partake had others done so, but in retrospect it was probably a wise choice as the combination of a big lunch, wine and an afternoon of seminars is never a good one.  We had a couple of very nice conference dinners in the evening (both of which were in easy walking distance of UNESCO and our hotel) - one in a traditional but upmarket bistro, and another in a small Sardinian restaurant.

The Grand Bistro de Breteuil, in particular, was very good, and despite our large number I think everyone received what we had previously ordered - including foie gras, sea bass and crème brûlée.

The meeting finished on the Wednesday, and we all parted company.  So, that evening, Debbie and I ventured away from the 7ème arrondissement, taking a bus across the Seine and into the Latin Quarter - an area renowned for having a trendy student atmosphere and numerous bistros and jazz bars.  It was to one of the latter that we were headed, the well-known and long established Duc des Lombards.  It advertises itself as a jazz club and restaurant, but I was fully aware that the place would be all about the music and less so the food.  We arrived fairly early and the place was deserted, so given that our concert didn't start until 8 PM we had a couple of drinks in a nearby crowded bar (the whole area was heaving, as expected).  We returned at 8 PM, fortunately to find the place much busier, and passed a very enjoyable evening listening to some fairly avant-garde and experimental jazz.  The place was not quite as I expected - fairly modern, clean and trendy, with a smart cocktail bar and classy 21st century lighting and sound equipment.  The food, as expected, was nice but nothing amazing - and, rather oddly, was served in little plastic bowls, with plastic cutlery.  It was edible, but nothing special - my chicken on a bed of mash felt like a cross between English pub-grub and festival or street-food.  The strangest thing about the entire evening was its length - the show started at 8 PM, and indeed no-one much was there beforehand, but by 9 PM it was all over and everyone left.  At first I thought it was just an interval and there would be a second-half, but sadly not.  So much for the romantic notion of sitting in a smoky basement, listening to jazz and drinking wine until the early hours of the morning...

The next morning we were again greeted by hot sun and blue skies, albeit slightly chilly first thing, with the TV weather forecast predicting temperatures of up to 30 degrees.  After a quick coffee and croissant in our usual café over the road, we met my parents who had taken an early morning train from where they were still sailing in Brittany.  With them, we had a very pleasant day - in the morning, we walked around the École Militaire to Les Invalides (known officially as L'Hôtel National des Invalides or L'Hôtel des Invalides), the impressive 17th-century complex of buildings which are now all museums and monuments commemorating France's military history.  As the name suggests, the main building was originally a hospital and retirement home for soldiers and war veterans.  We didn't actually enter the museum, instead passing the morning strolling through the highly manicured gardens.  When it comes to hospitals, I can think of worse places to be ill and to recover - and indeed, I have been in many of them.

The big event of the day, in celebration of my mother's imminent birthday, was lunch.  Originally I had booked us a table at Le Petit Marius, a well-known fish and seafood restaurant just over the river on the famous Avenue George V.  However, 2 things had been bothering me about this place: firstly that there would be very little, if anything, for Debbie to eat - "Mais, Monsieur, why would you come to zis restaurant when you do not like ze feeesh?" - and secondly that we all, especially my parents, are very familiar with fish and seafood restaurants.  Even Paris, with its amazing array of restaurants, might not compete with a summer of sailing around Brittany and all of its beautiful little fishing villages that we know so well.  So, because we were so impressed with it on Sunday and to give my parents a more authentic and traditional Parisian experience, we returned to La Fontaine de Mars.  I had booked a table this time and they greeted us like old friends, sitting us inside overlooking the fountain.  As hoped, we had an extremely good, extremely long and very boozy lunch - I can't remember exactly what everyone had, but our dishes involved more snails (my father was equally impressed), egg cocotte, foie gras, turbot, veal, duck, cheese and clafoutis.  When we had finally finished - it must have been around 4 PM - we walked along the river and back to our hotel, ready for my parents to catch their return train.

That evening, after a much-needed rest, we headed out again, this time catching a bus to nearby Montparnasse - an area of the city again known for its cafes and bars, and famous (or possibly infamous) because of the Tour Montparnasse, Paris' only and much-disliked skyscraper.  We were headed to another jazz club, the Petit Journal Montparnasse.  The concert started later at this place, so we stopped for a light dinner (incredibly we were a little peckish by this time) at a nearby bistro.  At around 10 PM, we arrived at the club, and again passed a hugely enjoyable evening listening to an impressive 20-piece big band.  The place was much more what I had expected - although it was also a restaurant, and the food indeed looked rather good, it was much more compressed and cosy, with dim lighting and a smoky atmosphere (albeit synthetic, as even Parisian jazz bars can't resist anti-smoking laws).  The music was amazing, and unlike the previous night there were numerous intervals and performances.  I'm not sure what time it ended, but we left around 1 AM - apart from missing the night bus and having to walk home, all in all it had been an excellent day.

For our final day in Paris, after another quick breakfast outside our usual café we took a bus towards the river, getting off near St Germaine and walking along the south bank towards the Île de la Cité.  It was another gloriously hot day, and we spent all morning walking along the river, around the island and visiting Notre Dame.

We had a lovely lunch in a small restaurant down a side alley on the island, enough off the beaten track to be less crowded with tourists - egg cocotte with foie gras for me, and mini spinach pancakes for Debs.  We spent the afternoon walking back through St Germaine, window-shopping at all the fancy chocolate shops and wondering if we could afford to buy any.  For the most part, the answer was no.

We had planned a visit to Montmartre for our final evening, however because we were reliant on buses and traffic was causing every journey to take longer than expected, we decided to postpone that plan for another time.  Instead, we returned to the area around the Eiffel Tower, meeting a Parisian friend of mine for a last kir in one of the many bars surrounding the Champ de Mars.  We had booked a table at another bistro I had read about some weeks before, which turned out to be a tiny place again off Rue St Dominique.  This was more of an upmarket bistro, but was equally nice - I had a starter of raw sea bass in a beetroot mousse, followed by sweetbreads which were wonderfully tender.  Again, they made a fair attempt at something vegetarian for Debs, giving her a starter involving eggs and mushrooms and then a main course of selected vegetables, again beautifully presented.  All in all, a wonderful final evening.

Our last day was spent in transit, and doesn't need to be reported here.  Suffice it to say that it was a fairly stressful day - surprisingly, getting out of Paris was relatively easy.  The rest, however, was not.  Unusually for France, a long section of our motorway was a car park for much of the morning, and we wasted almost 2 hours doing no more than 10 km.  As a consequence, we missed our Eurotunnel, who were also experiencing delays of their own.  Finally, we got back to Reading at 10 PM, almost 6 hours later and vowing that next time, soon, we would go by train...