To paraphrase Dickens, “Tis a far, far bigger lunch than I have ever eaten…”

Somehow, we managed to consume three Christmas lunches in December. I should qualify this by stating we did so willingly. Susie has always claimed she has a back up tummy specifically for desserts, which can be opened with an imaginary spigot when her primary stomach is nearing a gastronomic plimsoll line.

I must confess I have assisted her on occasion over the past month when even the reserve tummy was in danger of reaching capacity. For example, in Vitre I famously ate the best part of two main courses and both desserts. To be fair I did try to walk it off afterwards, in which endeavour I failed miserably.

We had Christmas lunch at Cafe Gourmand, then a few days later another at L’Abbaye. On Christmas Day itself we ate at L’Aromate, which was simply superb and more importantly negated the requirement to undertake an excess of washing up.

On New Years Eve we had dinner at Au Bon Accueil. We splashed out on a half bottle of champagne and enjoyed a beautiful set menu of seven courses.

A highlight of our New Years dinner was the unusual combination of smoked scallops with mandarin, it doesn’t sound as if it should work, but it did. We’d sat down to our meal at eight thirty and at midnight (and prior to our second dessert) all the exterior lights in the town went out, including the Christmas decorations. We fully expected them to come back on after 2018 was welcomed in but no, they are on a timer and not even New Years Eve can change that….We got home at well past 1am.

Luckily, we’d taken advantage of L’Aromate’s ‘plat emporter’ (take away) service for lunch on New Years Day. Merely requiring a quick steam or a few minutes in the oven, we speedily had a lovely lunch just as if we were in the restaurant. More importantly there was again a minimum of washing up….and no need for a second stomach..