Fortunately, we only have birthdays once a year, otherwise I’d be even older than I am… and that’s quite old! Last weekend saw me hit another of those awful ‘big birthdays’ with a zero at the end. Though I would have been happy to have let the day pass quietly, my wife, Marie-Danielle, decided otherwise. Unknown to me, she had invited the whole tribe to celebrate. In the end, one son couldn’t make it, and my other son’s wife and little boy were ill, so he had to come on his own. But M-D’s daughter, Muriel, and her family drove up from Orleans, so there were still seven of us sat round the table
Normally, it is me who does the cooking, both on a daily basis and for special events. This time, because I was getting even older, Muriel had prepeared a Veal Marengo which she brought with her in a large Le Creuset and served along with fresh tagliatelle (that’s after the foie gras and before the home-made Black Forest Gateau). We made sure to wsh it all down wth copious amounts of a rather welcome 1989 Chass Spleen.
However, I must be getting some sort of reputation for boozing (or have I had that for a while?) because my birthday gifts included three bottles of excellent ‘liquid refreshment’. My son, Ian, brought an exquisite bottle of mixed spirits from English Whisky Co Ltd – the only English distillery of whisky. And what a great distillery it is. It’s situated at Harling Road, Roudham, about 7 or 8 miles north-east of Thetford in Norfolk. If you get a chance to visit – don’t hesitate (they’ve recently opened a café/restaurant which has already gained an enviable reputation for quality.) The ‘Mixed Spirits’ bottle is a combination of Perdo Ximenez sherry and their own single malt whisky. They use sherry casks to mature some of their whiskys, so I guess they ship the casks over full!
Continuing with the alcohol theme, My other son, Justin, sent over a Magnum (1.5 litres) of 1982 Chateau Cardinal Villemaurine, a rather splendid Saint-Emilion Grand Cru. I suspect I shall end up taking it over the the Isle of Man when we go in May. I know just the neighbours who would help me dispose of that!
And to make my birthday complete, my lovely wife, gave me an excellent bottle of 2007 Château D’Yquem. This wine is the crème de la crème of Sauternes. Wines from Château d’Yquem are characterised by their complexity, concentration and sweetness, which is balanced by relatively high acidity. With proper care, a bottle will keep for a century or more, and the fruity overtones will gradually fade and integrate with more complex secondary and tertiary flavours. In a poor vintage, the entire crop is deemed unworthy of bearing the Château’s name and sold anonymously; this happened nine times in the 20th century! On the other hand, in July 2011, an 1811 bottle of Château d’Yquem sold for £75,000 ($117,000) at the Ritz in London to a private collector, to become the most expensive bottle of white wine ever sold. Looks like we’ll have to choose our moment carefully before we open that one.
Maybe I should have another birthday next year after all!
We often treat ourselves to 
First of all, though, there was some other business to attend to! in early December we enjoyed a really pleasant evening with Penny and Sarah, friends from the Isle of Man who were visiting Paris. We ate at “Le Procope” in Paris. Founded in 1686 and now Paris’ oldest café, there’s a great atmosphere. The food is excellent and reasonably priced (for central Paris). I tried a Tête de Veau (veal’s head) which, for some reason, I’ve always avoided till now. Frankly, I shall carry on avoiding it! 
There was nothing wrong with the food or the way it had been prepared it’s just that some foods suit us and some don’t. Tête de Veau turned out to just not be my thing. The other three hit luckier than me with dishes that suited them and that they enjoyed. But I had the pleasure of the company of three charming ladies, so I’m not complaining! The evening was fun and it was great to meet friends in a different environment.
And talking of Penny and Sarah, we will have pleasure of their company on December 24th for our Christmas celebration. But more of that when it happens because first we celebrated an early Christmas with M-D’s family near Orléans in north-central France. As our childrens’ families mature, we see less of them than before and, to me, this is quite right. They have built their own lives and we are now only a small part of it. So, since Muriel, Vincent and ‘the girls’ were heading to Corsica for Christmas, we spent an evening with them and had an early festive celebration.
At the weekend, we went up to Lille, where Christine lives and she trumped our Grenadin de Veau Gratiné with Magre de Canard (it’s not really a question of trying to outdo each other, because both recipes are drop-dead simple). Magre de Canard is duck breast – nothing more and nothing less. However, Christine roasted it and served it with a green pepper sauce and accompanied by sautée potatoes. It was more than splendid, it was rapture on a plate (and I ate far more than I should!)
While we were in Lille, we visited the Roubaix swimming pool museum. This is the most amazing place, and has made use of a beautiful old Art Deco swimming pool that was due for demolition due to safety problems.
On New Years Eve, M-D (my wife), her sister their two cousins and their partners (and myself) sat down to a typical French evening meal (started at 8pm and finished at 3am!) and, somewhere along the way (after the oysters and smoked salmon) we ate 
After half an hour of madness with New Year party poppers and various other lunatic activities, we cleared the rubbish off the table and sat down to fresh salad leaves in a 