If I tell you that this was the third course of five, and that it’s a plate of seared foie gras with butter-drenched pommes anna, and that we’re eating seated on plastic lawn chairs at a converted gas station where the menu hasn’t really changed (and with damn good reason) in two generations……

….. then you will probably find it understandable that in the end, we ditched course number four (cheese) out of sheer self-preservation.

from left to right, top to bottom: a beautiful Châteauneuf-du-Pape being decanted, a terrine of jambon persillé, local rosé and a pâté de campagne (just two of the four terrines we ate before the entrée), crisply-fried frogs’ legs saturated with garlic and parsley, pickles, serving the pommes anna, other diners celebrating a birthday, desserts of (clockwise from the top) poire au cassis, crème caramel, prunes and the best chocolate mousse I’ve ever had…. and behind, the decanter finally, mercifully, emptied.