My birthday dinner

Jason and I decided we were splurge for my birthday dinner. It was the only night that we went out for dinner while we were in France. We went to Le Choiseul for dinner. I had tried to make reservations at a couple other restaurants that had been recommended but they were closed on Wednesday night which is when I wanted since that was my birthday. I had gotten one recommendation for Le Choiseul and had seen a good review online so I decided to give it a try. I had gone for a walk in the afternoon and decided to just stop by to make the reservation. The building and grounds were very nice which is a good sign. I made the reservation without a problem.

Jason and I arrive at 8:15 for our 8:30 reservation and there was only one other couple in the restaurant. We thought, "oh no" but we hoped it was just because we were early. By 9pm the restaurant was full which was nice. With just the one other couple in the room it was painfully quiet so it was nice when the restaurant started to fill up. We did get a laugh though when we were listening to the other couple. It wasn't that we were purposefully listening to them but it was so quiet and they were so loud you couldn't miss it when she said that the cabbage that came with her meal just did not work with the dish.

Anyway, this is the first time that Jason and I had been to a gourmet restaurant. Being our first time we had the challenge of knowing all the etiquette which made us laugh but we also had the challenge of understanding the servers. They did speak English but it was accented and hard to understand and of course we wanted to seem like we knew what we were doing. I think the staff knew we had no clue but didn't care. We ordered our appetizer, meal, and dessert all at the same time. We also ordered a nice bottle of vouvray wine. Here is the meal process...

1. We order drink
2. We order our food and wine
3. They brought the wine, tasted it and then put it in a decanter and put it on ice.
4. They bring our pre-appetizer food. This is not anything we order just something they bring. It was all seafood based although I have no idea what it was. The plate was separated into three sections with something different in each section. Across the top of the plate was a spoon with something on it. The server clearly was telling us when to eat the stuff that was on the spoon but after he walked away Jason and I looked at each other and had no idea what he said. Do we eat it first or last?? I just waited for the server to leave the room and I ate it as quickly as possible! Just something else we laughed about. I tried all three things on my plate. I almost didn't try the middle one since it had fish eggs on it but I thought if I tell Sofia she has to try something before she says she doesn't like it then I have to do the same. I worked up my courage and took a bite. It was fine until the fish egg exploded in my mouth! That was it! I tried it and it was gross!!
5. They poured the wine
6. They brought our appetizer. Jason had gotten duck foie gras. He said it was tasty but I wasn't trying it. One exploding fish egg was enough for me. I had a chanterelle mushroom appetizer that was excellent.
7. They brought our post appetizer/pre meal appetizer. Again, this wasn't anything we ordered. It was some kind of foamy thing with licorice. I gave it a try but the foamy part just tasted like dirt so I left the rest of it there. Jason did well and ate all of his.
8. They brought our meal. I had pike perch and Jason had brook trout. Both are local specialties. They were delicious.
9. They brought our post-meal/ pre-dessert appetizer. This was also not anything we order. It was good though. They brought two small pieces of pie along with a small jar of cookies and marshmallows.
10. They asked us if we would care for coffee and Jason said yes. They then asked if we wanted to sit at the table or sit in the lounge. We decided to go sit in the lounge. So we left the dining room and went to the lounge. Apparently this is where the French go to smoke after they are done with their meal. Oh well, lesson learned. They other thing that was strange about the lounge is that the chairs were really small. You know they have to be small if I thought they were small! Oh well, it was still fun to sit in the lounge.

All in all it was a good meal with great service. It was by far the most expensive meal we have ever had but it was worth it to have the experience of dining in a French gourmet restaurant. Now that we have done it once we probably won't do it again since we prefer a more loud, gregarious restaurant like we find in Italy but it was still fun. We laughed a lot during our meal and have a great memory. The wine was fantastic and we tried to find it so we could bring some home with us but we didn't have any luck. We went direct to the vineyard to see if we could buy it but they had completely sold out. I guess I wasn't the only one that likes the wine.