Lunch in Lédignan - sometimes it's a good idea to have a bad navigator

Ok so now it is time for the non-driver I am to confess to my multiple uselessness. Due to a lack of attention to detail I managed to choose the wrong road coming out of Alès yesterday ... as is often the case when I'm wrong, I didn't even notice and just kept saying "oh yes, next village will be ..."
Hmm ... fortunately Dr B is a geographer and finally said "do we really need to go to Sommières?" hmmm no...

Anyway, at the beginning of this slight detour - in the grand scheme of things it wasn't too serious - we stopped for lunch in Lédignan. We'd been trying to find a place to have a decent cup of coffee since leaving Nyons and failed miserably - though we did come across a fascinating little Protestant temple in one of the villages.

Dr B didn't want to take the motorway too much so we discovered lots of lovely little places that we may or may not visit again, and we travelled through wonderful countryside in great weather. To get to St Chinian from we skirted the edge of the Cévennes and seem to have travelled from the more Protestant Gard to the more Catholic Hérault. We also came past a strange Papal enclave (where our Visan wine from the previous night came from) which has become a peninsula of the Gard within the Drome.

Anyway lunch in Lédignan was wonderful - very delicious, 15 euros for three courses and really great service and food. We ate outside in the garden but the indoor restaurant was full with lots of folk who felt the autumn air was too cool. It's called La Gardonnenque, uses local food and suppliers and seems to offer a great take out service to many folk in the town as well. Pictured here is my starter, a pressé of goat's cheese and fresh tomatoes with a delicious spicy sweet tomato coulis.

So I suppose this is a warning, there may be an occasional serious post on this blog in the next few weeks but mainly it will be about food, wine and the occasional book I may manage to read ... it's called HOLIDAY!