Suriauville

We were invited by our son-in-law’s relatives to have lunch at his place - the village of Suriauville, about an hour’s drive from Nancy.

On arrival, we received a warm welcome, even from their dog. With my limited French and English we communicated quite well. One of the aunts’ husband speaks fluent English and my husband and I had an interesting chat with him. The two aunts and the cousin cooked a real delicious meal and dessert - roasted pintade (an African bird), potatoes and apples as legumes and a mouth-watering dessert with lots of walnuts. We were so fortunate to be treated to a French home-cooked meal, one aunt actually taught French cuisine. To finish off the lunch, a bottle of Mirabella (a strong liquor made locally with plums) was offered to us. As we had been having quite a bit of wine during lunch we dared not to have this drink which has a high percentage of alcohol, but as suggested by our host we did taste it from a sugar lump soaked in this liquor.

We were shown some old furniture which was elegant and was recorded in a book as furniture made locally. We were also told that each emperor of France had his own style and design of furniture throughout their reign. The chair in the photo is a Louis II design.

We had a walk around, the views of the faraway mountains and patches of different shades of green and the spaciousness is very attractive to me.

The hospitality was warm and I treasure the experience I had with these nice folks. I thank them with ‘Nous avons un très bon heure aujourd'hui, ici’, merci beaucoup!’ It didn’t matter if the grammar or the pronunciation  wasn’t perfect, the main thing is the message got across.