The Year Began with Lunch…

At one of my favorite restaurants on the Cote d’Azur (French coastline,

I think you call it the French Rivera?)

Hangs tightly on the cliff side, like a barnacle to a rock.

The food of course is the reason I like to go there, it is as Frenchhusband says: "*C’est le petit Jésus en culottes de velours! (Like baby Jesus in velvet shorts!)" Honest to God, that is what he says…I guess it could be better translated as: "Oh My God, this is good!" (Obviously, we didn’t have the same Catholic upbringing!) Jesus never wore velvet shorts in my church!

Don’t be fooled by the chalices holding Badoit! As you can see by the lipstick mark on my wine glass, which drink captivated me the most; A red pearl of Bandol is left at the bottom of the glass.

Good company, delicious food, enjoyable conversations – spiced with French words, what more could one hope for while having lunch?

A striking blue velvet cape, to remind you this is heaven on earth. The view teasingly splashes on the window of the restaurant, like a divne dessert!

Photos: Lunch at "Le Cabanon," in Sanary.

*The title of my post today is the first sentence from the book, "A Year in Provence, by Peter Mayle."

*Thank you Marie-Noelle for your research into this old French expression!



Comments

47 responses to “The Year Began with Lunch…”

  1. It is time for you to start a food blog I think!
    I was going to make myself some oatmeal porridge for a simple lunch, but after reading these words, looking at these photos……I don’t know if a simple porridge will do 🙂
    Well, I have promised the girls a homemade wok for dinner though.

  2. oh gee ~ what a gorgeous life we read about here. I think Jesus would look cute in little velvet shorts 🙂

  3. I love to read of your fabulous adventures.
    Treasure every golden moment of your richly blessed life.
    You make me laugh.
    You touch my soul.
    Love Jeanne

  4. Paris Parfait

    Lovely post, Corey and nice tribute to your adopted home. That’s a very funny expression your husband uses. 🙂

  5. gorgeous…water makes me feel alive…have a glass for me!…annie

  6. You torment me with fine food and wine!! Looks like a perfect place to have both.

  7. This is absolutely dreamy! The blue of the water makes me want to jump right in (even though its probably pretty cold).

  8. Hmm…”baby Jesus in velvet shorts.” LMAO. Frenchmen are definitely in touch with their feminine side 🙂
    It looks like the water is about to flood the restaurant. It would make a wonderful movie scene. Wow!

  9. I must stop reading your posts before mealtime – I will grow fat!
    How much more accessible the Cote D’Azur looks in your photos than in advertisements.

  10. My, those scallops look good. Those are one of my favorite things, along with wine.

  11. You just mentioned my favorite book! I have never laughed so hard as I did reading A Year in Provence…until I heard about Jesus’s velvet shorts, that is…

  12. Bandol!
    Badoit!
    Two very special drinks —
    but, I must admit that we are going to work ‘like baby Jesus in velvet shorts’ into our lexicon ASAP.

  13. Ahhh….you tease us with your
    wonderful French Riviera..ohh such is the life of Corey with lips of red.. so romantic and sweet!! What a wonderful heavenly post and I love the size of that *scallop* on your plate!!

  14. I love Peter Mayle. Add to that – I work in construction so I was enetertained by all of the similarities in that field.
    One of my favorite sayings is good food, good friends, good conversation”
    Love this post.

  15. What a wonderful date that must have been! I love Yann’s expression…baby Jesus in velvet shorts —so, so funny. You two are well-matched pair!

  16. Dreamy is the only word that comes to mind when I visit you…All of it, even Jesus in velvet shorts.

  17. Perfectly French – with a dash of American humor added in for spice! Love it!

  18. “baby jesus in velvet
    shorts?”
    splendid – utterly
    splendid –
    i shall use it –
    catholic upbringing aside:)

  19. Scallops with ginger and orange..Yann is right..!
    Though I’ve never heard it put quite as eloquently before…

  20. What a wonderful way to begin the year, that restaurant looks fabulous (like being on holiday). The gorgeous scenery, can I join you? I see scallops 🙂

  21. As a vegetarian, I could pass on the seafood, but the bluest of waters? I would snap them up in a second. What a relaxing and enjoyable way to spend an afternoon. (Thanks for sharing it; I can always dream!)

  22. I am so jealous right now… I can’t even get my husband to the local Wendy’s! But then again, there is nothing there that would make him exclaim, “Like the baby Jesus in velvet shorts!”
    Love it and you, Corey!

  23. Hi Corey… just dropping by (while it is still January) to wish you a very happy new year! And thanks for reminding me to get my Peter Mayle books out and reread them… 🙂 Thanks for always having such beautiful posts for us to read! Blessings, Debra

  24. How I love to visit you! Little mini vacations savoring the sites and food and company!

  25. I love living my life vicariously through your blog. What an amazing looking restaurant! . . .and just so you know Bandol is my favorite kind of wine in the world. We have it in every section of our wine storage. The bottles we drink and the bottles we age. Leather, cigar and even horse stable – it just does not get better than that. It is a rich and funky wine. Good lord you have amazing taste!

  26. A pearl of wine . . . I’ve never seen it exprerssed more poetically or succinctly! How I wish I had been there, too. But it’s nice you took your camera along for a treat for your readers.

  27. Corey,
    You’re right. It really does not get any better than that.
    rel

  28. What a life, my friend, what a life.

  29. Baby Jesus in velvet shorts?! That’s very creative of him!! Also moderately blasphemous, but it’s all the same.

  30. WOW! What a life! I’m feeling very Francey, right now, like I need a trip there immediately. That ain’t gloing to happen but it was nice to live vicariously through this post, if even for a moment!

  31. DEAR God.. Sacre Bleu! My life is not mine!!!!! I am straining at the bit to get into the pictures on your blog! I am in the wrong place!

  32. Corey, I love the way you savour the moment and experience life with all your senses (inlcuding the sense of humour)!

  33. Like Baby Jesus wearing velvet shorts! Oh I love that! Yes, I think that is going to have to become part of my vocabulary immediately.

  34. Another great day in the South of France! What a postcard picture view of the restaurant. I’ll have to try Bondol…I wonder if they carry it at my local wine store?

  35. Oh my dear C,
    I think you should start a ‘French Husband’ dictionary of such gorgeous sayings!!
    Bon apetit

  36. What a beautiful spot-I will go there someday…oh, the food looks devine, too!

  37. a delightfully delicious start to the year!

  38. What a fantastic looking restaurant… though I’m not sure I could drag myself away from sitting on the waters edge and watching the blue sea.

  39. Marie-Noëlle

    A gorgeous day !
    And has little Jesus put his (lycra or cotton) swimming trunks on to have a blue velvet bath?
    (I saw all those lucky people bathing in the Mediterranean Sea last week as the weather was unusually so clement in France!)

  40. Baby Jesus in velvet shorts – I LOVE THAT!

  41. Dreamy, that lunch!

  42. Lol…velvet shorts. Crack me up! Beautiful view.
    a.

  43. oh what a delightfully delicious scene….I live so vicariously through you…sipping good wine, eating good food, enjoying the view and the company. Definitely times to remember I’m sure. I am not quite sure I understand Yann’s phrase however, but it sounded cute.
    oh and I met Peter Mayle at a book signing several years ago – lovely fellow.
    XOXO
    Love,
    Lisa

  44. thank you for sharing such a delicious place with us… xoxo

  45. I like the expression. I majored in French literature in college and lived in Paris for 6 months but that is one I never ran into. It is a colorful idiom. What a great place to dine too.

  46. what a surprised!!
    I am French.
    I look at the photos…
    my god, but I know, it is the preferred beach of my husband
    it’s a good idea to show this magic place.

  47. And, “the year began with lunch”. What a perfectly wonderful way to begin…..anything. Thank you Corey and thank you Peter Mayle. Lovely envious thoughts swirling in my jealous brain.

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