Xmas dinner leftovers.....

Who better to give leftover Christmas Turkey to than good old Ladyboy! She has taken up residency on the doorstep of the office and despite resisting feeding her up till now (mainly as we've had no leftovers to feed her up till now!!), her perseverance paid off today and a big feed of Turkey went her way! One very happy dog!

After the gluttony of Christmas day, the feast continued tonight with a meal at the 'L'Arolay', a very popular restaurant up in the 'Le Fornet' area. I have been led to believe that 'Le Fornet' is one of the highest habitable villages in France.

The L'Arolay is a lovely restaurant specialising in brasserades, fondues and big hunks of steak which you cook to your own liking on a platter with Bunsen burner underneath ( a bit like a pierrade style set-up!), amongst other French dishes.

Despite it being a Friday night, I was amazed at how busy the place was, we got there quite early at 7.30pm, but by 8.30pm it was absolutely packed and people without reservations were being turned back out into the cold. Service was amazing with our waiter scuttling around with the speed of a squirrel, he was superb, think we managed to get the best table in the house too, right next to the roaring log fire, very nice!!

The food was great, the portions huge, especially the starters, I had a salad big enough to serve three and the gentlemen of the party had a platter of Jambon Cru each which seriously consisted of roughly half a pig on a plate, it was an obscene amount of meat. Snails were served very garlicky and in cute, snail shell shaped, pastry shells.

An interesting vegetarian main option has been added to the menu this season, it's classed as a 'Panier Vegetarian', and as it rightly describes, is a vegetarian basket. The veggies come in a bamboo steamer basket which is quite novel, filled with more than enough Vegetables to fulfill the 5 portions a day quota!

For those who aren't too keen on big hunks of meat or fondues for a main course, there is also a fish dish, which although hard to describe what it actually is, was highly rated by the ladies in the party.

Of course, no meal is complete without dessert, however full one may be. Lucky for us there was a chocolate fondue which was a perfect size for three of us to share. Complete with fruit to dunk in the thick rich chocolate, it was a great finish to a great meal.

A word of advice, book well in advance if you wish to dine there!!