Rest day

Last night's food left us all moaning and licking the plates. We ate:

• Salmon in cream and muscadet sauce, haricot verts
  
• Green salad
• Brillat-Savarin with slices of baguette and olive bread
• Roasted figs with creme fraiche

Recipes for the fish and dessert came once again from Georgeanne Brennan's Savoring France. The food didn't match the current location of the Tour -- the main course was evocative of the Pays de la Loire -- but it certainly pleased us. I had been wanting to cook this salmon recipe ever since the Tour was in Nantes, but I waited until an evening when B was away; he doesn't eat salmon.

I. asked about the cheese; here is some information garnered from Steven Jenkins' Cheese Primer. Brillat-Savarin (bree-YAH sah-vah-RAN) is a triple-creme cheese from Normandy. Jenkins describes it as a " 'cheese confection' that has hot, rich cream added to its milk to achieve a butterfact content (matiere grasse) above 75%. ... Brillat is made for dessert, a cheese that is crying out for the sweetest, most delectable, in-season fruits such as peaches, rasberries, apricots, and strawberries ..."

The Brillat-Savarin that we ate last night was over-ripe, unfortunately. We enjoyed it, but it certainly had a sharp edge. I'm going to begin asking to taste cheeses before I purchase them, especially for imported, infrequently-sold types.