It was a Sunday and we all knew it and needed it. Remi and I had picked up our hard-working friends Marc and Bettina in Nimes and then headed up through the winding hills to Uzès. Uzès, how I love thee! Ben knows. He loves it too. But it is in Winter when I prefer it as the town, one of the most beautiful in the South of France, is positively empty.
Ah, save for at Terroirs, where we grabbed the last outdoor table on the terrace. The gentlemen gave the ladies the view on the Place aux Herbes and backs against the (very much needed) space heaters. We did our best to settle in the dogs and then it was time to consider with anticipation how to give ourselves over to a similarly floppy relaxed abandon.
We puzzled and bantered over the simple yet tempting menu with the charming waiter who leaned on our table and wished that he could join us for a glass of the very nice local wine that he had just poured into our ready glasses. Decisions were made, then changed until promises of shared bites were offered.
I was tired, coming off of a week of not sleeping well. But one of the many aspects of being with our long-time friends is that they take us as we are. There is no need to put on a show or to pretend to be other. So I felt free to be quiet.
The conversation burbled on around me like little musical notes dancing off the staff. I let my eyes do the talking, taking little snapshots of the view from our table, my camera resting otherwise in my lap. Our food arrived just as my stomach was starting to rumble and I enjoyed my delicious gratin du jour, the cheese bubbling over smoky eggplant to warm me up from the inside so that I no longer needed the polar fleece blanket placed with consideration on the arm of my chair.
We all knew our good fortune at being able to eat outside in February and so we stayed. A second bottle of wine was ordered as it was sold à la ficelle, literally by the string so that you paid only for the level of how much you drank. Because honestly, we just wanted to linger, to pull the moment like the sweet taffy it was.
We were amongst the very last to leave (that was our table at far left) and certainly no one rushed us to go. How quiet the Place was now. Full of Winter.
All the better to take a post-dining stroll, an institution in France.
And when that perambulation happens to be in Uzes…
…well, your eyes will feast as well as your belly has.
Sunday, sweet Sunday…
…I always find a home in you.
Terroirs Restaurant
5 Place aux Herbes
30700 Uzès
Tel. : 04 66 03 41 90
PS. Thank you to everyone from Remi (and me too of course) over the many, many congratulatory comments and emails about the publication of “his” French stamp! You are a lovely group of people, I have to say…
"So I felt free to be quiet"….love this Heather! Lingering, second bottle of wine, good friends, perambulating and lingering on…to pull the moment like the sweet taffy it was. Wonderful..thank you! xx
By the last day of our trip to Provence last spring (we had met you early in our two week stay for our walking tour of Arles) we had not been to Pont du Gard so we had lunch in our favorite restaurant in Isle-sur-le-Sorgue (The Table) and drove to Uzes for exploration and an early dinner at Terroirs (we sat one table to the right). Then we made it to see the Pont du Gard in the most incredible light ever. Always think of it as the most perfect day we could have had to end our trip. Thank you for the beautiful pictures jolting my memory.
P.S. to answer the question so thoroughly begged by that entire, previous posting?……Yes, these are, indeed, the sort of facts that only gay, aristo-philic, bourgeoise American men with useless Humanities graduate degrees, French boyfriends, and eidetic memories bother with.
Guilty as charged, as usual——
David Terry
Hey, Miss Heather,
Perhaps you already know my favorite Uzes fact:
As is well-known, the de Crussol's (surname of the current, 17th Duc d'Uzes, who's only about 57) revolutionarily-ruined tails were saved in the late 19th century by dint of their snagging the fortune (by way of a respectable, if transparently money-grubbing marriage, of course) of "La Marquise Rouge" (less dramatically known as "La Grande Duchesse" and, prior to her marriage, as plain "Anne de Rochechouart"….but she WAS the sole heiress to the Veuve Cliquot champage fortune).
She bears the distinctions (among many honors; she was also a deservedly-known poet, sculptor, and a great pal of Malraux's….the lady was no slacker) of being: (1) The First Woman to get a driver's license in France, and (2) The First Woman to get a speeding ticket in France. I find that combination infinitely amusing…..she must have been a hoot to know. Oh….she was also the first Frenchwoman to fly in an airplane (I can't recall if she actually operated the thing or just sat in it)
Otherwise (and, yes, I do happen to have an eidetic memory, which is why I can rattle off facts like this), did you know that, by dint of some tortuously complex historical twists(never try to explain this sort of thing to an American) the current, mild-mannered and apparently quite affable duke is the premier duke and first peer of France? Of course (and as is the case with England's Duke of Norfolk), a lot of this is the result of several other, contending families' dying or being killed-off over the course of 25 generations of de Crussols…..all of whom seem to have done their job of producing a direct heir before dying or being killed-off themselves.
SO??????…..the current Duc de Uzes gets to carry the crown and sceptre (and to pronounce the accession of the new king) at the coronation,…..the moment you folks get around to deciding to have a king again.
And thereby endeth the Lesson for Today. Thanks be to God.
"Le Roi est Mort! Vive le Roi!"
—-David "La Marquise d'Ici" Terry
http://www.davidterryart.com
Why are you NOT sleeping???Perhaps, more wine will do the trick!
Lovely photos…………..LOVELY!
XOXO
We have spent many wonderful times in Uzes and in fact have driven up from Nimes through the very hilly countryside you mentioned. And isn't the old Roman one arch bridge on that road? Uzes is a delightful place year round. Thanks for reminding us.
As always, another beautiful posting. I'm left smiling this morning in Kauai because food seems to be on everyone's mind. After looking at the blogs I enjoy following, I noticed that "Sara in le petit Village" also spoke about her "foodie" experience, and I must have been somehow magically linked to both of you because my on post late last night was bemoaning the loss of a favorite dining establishment here on Kauai (Kauai-to-Paris.com). Leaves me pondering the fact that Love and Food are the great "Connectors" for everyone to discover one another. Mahalo for another great post! Aloha
What good boys, tous les deux! Uzes now on the (growing) list!
How beautiful. I can taste the food and wine in the crisp air. Your descriptions are delectable! Merci 🙂
We like Uzès too. The Saturday morning market there on Place aux Herbes is one of our favorites in the South of France. We sat at one of those tables at Terroirs Restaurant (one of quite a few times) with my cousins Jean Marc and Christine as we debated the pros and cons of Sablet versus several small villages near Uzès. The next day we signed the purchase agreement for our home in Sablet.