The wait is over! Lunch at the French Laundry is here.
But first…. D and I arrived to Yountville a little early to work up our appetites with a stroll around the French Laundry garden.
It’s an expansive space, with beds so well organized and beautifully tended that I imagine even Martha Stewart might be envious. For those botanically inclined, there’s a map of the garden so that you can find the Musquée de Provence winter squash, the “sweet granite” melons, or the ping pong radishes.
After walking among the beds for a while, and discovering a beehive at the back of the garden, I headed toward the greenhouse.
There are some very colorful tomatoes inside!
My favorite part of the garden is next to the greenhouse: the chicken coop! (Even the coop has the famous French Laundry blue door.)
Inside, there’s a flock of rather unusual chickens with luxuriantly feathered feet, captained by one nosy rooster.
Here he is in action:
There are flats of baby garden greens here and there, which the chickens munch on (and step on, and sit on).
But even when you’re eating French Laundry salad every day, the grass is still greener on the other side…
Up next, lunch!
Les Sources de Caudalie, Bordeaux
Tea at the Brown Palace Hotel, Denver
Chicken cacciatore
Next: Sicily