My husband's personal quest is always to find the perfect piece of bread, the perfect baguette, the perfect croissant. It is such a personal quest that I am not involved at all. It is an obsession, ne, an addiction. He gets up in the morning and goes out to fulfill this quest, taking suggestions from our host and others about where to go, looking at shops in each village to see if he missed the best baguette. Today, however, I may have stumbled on the best baguette of the trip. This morning we set off for market day in Carpentras. The town was very busy, so busy that D. dropped me off with the dog and S. to walk the market. As I wandered I noticed a very fine shop, Jouvaud, which made bread, pastries, and candy, as well as contained a Salon de The' to sit in. After meeting at our appointed time and place, I went back to Jouvaud and purchased a baguette, a "crumble" which is rather like an American muffin-top, a raisin croissant, and a chocolate merengue. We ate the crumble and the croissant which we were both excellent and sampled the baguette - D. had to admit I had inadvertently found the perfect baguette.
We returned to the house where I then made a near-perfect omelette and potatoes for lunch, accompanied by the perfect baguette. When we were at the market in Apt, we had purchased a jar containing fresh local black truffles for approximately $12.00. While in Carpentras, I had left several of the truffles soaking in hot water so upon our return, I could make the omelette lunch. This was something I had experimented with last year when our host gave us a gift of one truffle, and I researched via internet how to prepare truffles, and located a simple recipe for the truffle omelette, the easiest and most pure way for me to cook the truffles and appreciate the taste. As with any new recipe, it takes several tries to perfect, but I am close, perhaps one more away, with one more truffle left, I should achieve perfection before the trip reaches its conclusion.
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